Trying Something Completely Crazy!!!

Okay, so there is this marathon next weekend here at Tallil to correspond with the Boston Marathon, and a bunch of people in our unit are going to run the relay portion of the marathon, 6 or so miles each, 4 people per relay team. Well, today I decided that rather than try it as a relay member, I'm going to try and run the whole stinking thing by myself. That's right, all 26 miles of it.

So tonite I decided to run 2 laps around this 3.5 mile section of the base. I got 2 laps in and felt pretty good so I went on for 3 laps. At the end of the third lap I still felt pretty good so I went around for a 4th lap. Now, by about a third of the way thru the fourth lap my hips were really starting to hurt and my arches were too. But all in all I'm fairly upbeat about my performance. I ran roughly 14 miles in 1 hour and 56 minutes, and I'm hoping that most of my problems are related to lack of water or sustinance, I didn't drink anything during my run.

I am guessing it was about a 7 mile an hour pace, not too bad. I'm also guessing that around the 16 to 18 mile mark I'm going to hit 'the wall', the point where human physical limits kick in and the mind has to somehow force the body to continue, or you will not be able to go on.

I'm going out tomorrow to drive that loop and measure just how far it is. I'm also going to run a long ways just one more time, probably Tuesday, and then every other day run about 3 miles or so.

I felt pretty good tonite, but there is no telling how I will feel at about 20 miles in next Saturday, YIKES!!

Current Lyrical Ramblings

Don't know where I'm going
But I know where I've been
Look around me everybody's trying to win

Last Mile - Cinderella

Life On The VCC

It's actually pretty nice to be back on VCC. This may sound odd, considering that I work a lot more hours than I have to in any other aspect within this company. But I get away from the pure fucking bullshit that permeates the leadership of our unit like some sort of disgusting stench, it's like walking into a room and just wrinkling your nose, and I'm tired of it.

It's a lot busier now on VCC than it was back in November and December, and I've pretty much immediately been immersed into it, handling even more duties than I was back then. I think they like having me back down there, the leadership that is. But then, maybe I'm only tooting my own horn haha : )

Yesterday I got involved in something I hadn't taken a part in the last time I was on VCC, I had to escort a driver off post, with his semi truck, because he hid a cell phone in his vehicle. He was a third country national, in this case from Egypt, and I don't know if he fully understood what was going on, but I think he did, they know the score, if you hid contraband items in your vehicle and you are caught, you are banned from ever coming back.

I headed into the Air Force area of the VCC compound where they had him (the Air Force does the searches and handles the bulk of the base security, it IS an Air Force Base after all, even though we Army folks are harder workers haha). The driver was probably about 50 years old, maybe a little older, somewhat heavyset, 275 pounds or so, about 5 ft 10 in tall, dark graying hair. He spoke very little English, in fact I spoke more Arabic than he spoke English, but that didn't help much.

The Air Force took his photo to add to the list of banned workers, they gave me his cell phone and passport, and I escorted him out to his truck to ride with him to the front gate where I would get out, and he would wait for the rest of his convoy, then leave, presumably to never be allowed back. I got into the passenger side as he got into the driver side, and he settled into his chair with a deep sigh.

I took some time looking around the vehicle as he got his truck prepared to start. Basically the foreign national workers live in their vehicles, and his truck was no exception, you could see he had taken the time to keep his vehicle cleaned up inside, he had two small hearts hanging in the windshield, each said "I Love You" in English, many bottles of water scattered around the cab, for easy access when thirsty, his sleeping area in back all tidy, clothes folded neatly under the bunk.

Although neither of us could communicate, it was extremely awkward. He knew what was happening, and what I was there for. As we slowly took off, I gave him hand signals as to where to turn, the different roads to take to get turned around. From time to time he would mumble about something and do hand actions as to what he was doing, and why he 'forgot' to tell them about the cell phone. I could pick up certain cryptic worlds in Arabic, but it is so hard to understand the language anyway, I'm not nearly adept at it, and he is from Egypt, which is as tough as having your grandfather head into Compton and try talking to a gang, it's a different type of Arabic altogether.

Most of these workers don't make a LOT of money, but it's a lot more than they'd get in their home countries. They come to Iraq and brave dangerous situations and less than ideal living conditions in order to save up enough money to move up in the world back home. Many hide items because they fear they will not get them back. A cell phone is an expensive item for most of them, considering the money it takes to get one and the salary they get for the work they do. They always get their phones back, but it still doesn't alleviate the fear of the unknown when they come on post, so they still try and hide them. And of course, they end up getting kicked off post.

I got him to the road leading off post, and when we got to the drop off point, I wanted to say something, but nothing really fit. To say I'm sorry wasn't the right thing, what I wanted to say was that things don't always go right, that he was a good man from what I could see and how much I didn't like doing this. Of course I wasn't able to say this to him, but I did shake his hand as I left, I always try to be as cordial and respectful as I can, for this is their land, not ours, and even though he is Egyptian and not Iraqi, he is more home than I am.

Respect goes a long way, with anyone, and even though it was a bad situation for him to be in, I believe he knew how I was feeling, I sat for a bit more and visited as only two people who cannot speak to one another can, thru some hand signals and pointing, then I headed out, we were both smiling.

That's the best I think you can hope for in certain situations. Even though I will likely never see this person again, we both likely learned a bit about one another from just a chance encounter in some crummy circumstances.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

...and the earth becomes my throne
I adapt to the unknown
under wandering stars I've grown
by myself but not alone
I ask no one

Anywhere I Roam - Metallica

Out Of Gas And Sore

Well, I’m was going to make a long elaborate post about how my 4 day pass in Qatar was, about how it was only 3 days, but that I still had fun, yadda yadda yadda, but I’m going to keep it short. First of, the people of Qatar are assholes, they have a lot of money, money the didn’t earn (OIL) and they are stuck up and arrogant, I’ll stay just short of the world ‘racist’ but it’s damn close, and likely in some cases.

Also, my previous comments on drivers in Kuwait being the worst in the world… well, let’s just make that drivers in the middle east, because the only difference between those in Kuwait and Qatar are that the drivers in Qatar drive more expensive vehicles (not by much though, Kuwait vehicles are pretty nice too).

So, no one threw up on me on the flight back, which by the way was at 4 in the freaking morning, so we couldn’t even get any sleep that night, considering you are doing shit for 2 hours before you even get on your flight, such as turning in linen, signing forms, etc. I know, hard to believe you’d be signing more forms in the military, there is SO little of that going on. Okay, late and equally lame April fools joke there.

So anyways, I had a couple of days back here in Tallil not doing much of anything, I mean, out at the motor pool in the morning, moving a few vehicles around, doing this and that, and I wrote up a packet for the company to give people who are going on their 4 day pass, to let them know what to bring, what not to bring, and what you will be doing there, seeing how our fucking leadership is too inept to have something like that already. I haven’t given it to anyone yet, tomorrow I’m going to stop down and hand it to the 1SGT in person and tell him that it needs to be given out along with the DD Form 31 (paper that allows you to go on leave) so that people won’t be as ignorant as I was, not knowing where to go, what to bring, and turning in my weapon at the last minute because I damn near forgot to (I’ll take the blame on that one, but running my M16A2 down to the arms room a half mile away 20 minutes before I’m supposed to be at the Tallil terminal to sign for my flight, was not very smart and I was running VERY fast).

Yesterday, I am finishing up out at the motor pool, it’s 1630, a very late Sunday, considering most units don’t really do a whole lot on a Sunday anyway, when I came back to find my name on the whiteboard for being NCOIC of VCC again *WOO HOO!!*
So I was back out there today, first time in more than 3 months, doing my thing, I was shocked at how fucked up our company has it, but I’m going to do my best to fix it over the next week to 10 days, I’m guessing that’s how long I’ll be on it. They didn’t tell me why I am back on it, which is typical, the leadership in our unit just loves to keep people blind, even though the ‘leader’ in question is the same fucking rank as I am, and he’s an egocentric asshole who perpetuates the ‘good old boy’ system and doesn’t even realize he does it, which is pretty sad if you ask me. Oh well, not getting into that. 6 more months, fraNky boy, and you are out of this unit forever!! YAH!!

This afternoon I had a little time to kill, because I’m damn good as a VCC NCOIC and I get my shit squared away, so I headed out to the junk pile to get myself some items to make a weight set with, and I ended up with enough for a 65 lb. curl bar and an 85 lb. curl bar (estimated weights). I am using the suspension springs off of what I believe is a humvee and maybe an LMTV (larger than a humvee, smaller by a hair than a deuce-and-a-half. They rock, I have one done so far, and I put a couple pictures up on my yafro page, one of the raw materials of the heavier bar which I haven’t started yet, and the lighter one which I’ve completed already. THANK GOD FOR 100 MPH TAPE!! I used a lot of it!!

I also stopped out at the Hesco Marts (named for the Hesco barriers, sand filled barriers to protect whatever you put them in front of, some people call them Haji Marts, I think that is disrespectful), just to see what was for sale, the local Iraqi’s sell their wares there, a lot of bootleg stuff, movies, electronics, along with actual Iraqi items, leather goods, metal working, blankets, etc. I bought 4 new bootleg movies, at 2 bucks a pop. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Date Movie, Hulk, and already, yes, V for Vendetta. The Iraqi ‘businessmen’ who promote movies are freaking fast, I can’t wait to see the movie theater they shot this one in, with people walking in front of the camera. I wonder if my neighbor wonders who I am yelling at sometimes when I scream at the television “SIT THE FUCK DOWN!!!”

Ohhhhhhh yes and I almost forgot. We are driving alone coming up to the gates of Tallil, these fancy things everyone calls “The Arches”, and I look down and see that I’m just under a quarter tank of gas. I turned to tell two of my soldiers who are riding in the vehicle “Sorry guys, I know you want to get back to your rooms, but I need to fuel up” and immediately, the freaking vehicle dies and coasts to a stop RIGHT under the arches at the main gate, talk about funny. So then it was us and the Air Force security guys who run the main gate pushing the vehicle off to the side of the road just inside the gate. I had to laugh, everything went so well all day and that was how it ended.

I had to walk a mile and a half, while the other 2 guys waited for the bus. I was too frustrated to just sit there and wait, I needed to blow off steam. I power walked it in about 10 minutes, and by that time I was all tired out, so I didn’t go for my run. Besides, I knew I would make my curl bar and do some work with that. I grabbed a mechanic and we headed back down to my HUMVEE (driving another vehicle this time, NOT walking) and sure enough, it was out of gas, took us more than 10 minutes to reprime that motor (DO NOT EVER run a diesel out of fuel, woah).

So here I am tonite, oh and very very sore, last night I did 10 sets of 20 each pushups and situps, and tonite I’ve been doing a bunch of curls and upright rows. I’m going to get myself into hella good shape. I’m never that far out of shape though, which is good. Well, it’s getting late, time to decide which movie to watch and hit the hay!! NIGHT NIGHT FRIENDS!

Current Lyrical Ramblings

Oppressed that she who clearly
Sees the wealth of the trees
To obtain a bird's eye is to
Turn a blizzard to a breeze

Nice To Know You – Incubus