We dodged a bullet as far as the rain forecast goes this week. It did actually rain, but just enough to make the ground a little wet. It was actually nice afterwards - it added a kind of freshness to the air that I have not witnessed since I have been here. Below is a picture in the morning right after the shower.
I did run for an hour on the treadmill on Tuesday. I felt pretty good. I ran 11.7 kilometers - I'll let that sink in for a while, because I know most of you are thinking, Is that far? I will help you out later on.
The other part to the running story is that when I returned, there was no water. On some occasions I would have been ok without a morning shower - after all we are in a war zone. This morning was not one of them, I was soaking wet from the gym. I had work to get to, so I grabbed 3 bottles of water and went into the shower and made do - I can't complain because that is my first combat shower since I have been here. The water was quite cold, but it was effective.
On Wednesday, Gary Sinise was here with his Lt Dan Band. I knew he was coming to town and worked hard to leverage my connections to try to get a picture with him. After a few misses, my friend MAJ Schermerhorn called and said "get to the boardwalk" - I ran there - he called again and said "hurry and come to our office" - I did. I waited for about 20 minutes for them to finish eating and checking e-mail and then had a chance to get my picture. By this time it was close to show time, so they said we have to make this quick. As an added bonus, Bubba of Forrest Gump fame was also in the room. I walked up to Gary and he asked "How do you want to do this..?" - meaning single pics or just one. I said "no, no, just one" Just then Bubba came closer and heard me and said "oh, ok I see - just one" I laughed and said "no, no, I meant just one picture" Gary backed me up and said "he meant one picture" We are still laughing about it on the picture. As a parting comment, I did tell Gary that I have had some people ( Joel from home in particular ) tell me that I look like his character in the movie Ransom - he smiled and replied "You're a mean guy". I was also able to alert my roommates in time for them to get a picture as well. Another good time and diversion chasing photo ops...
We went to his concert for a little while on Wednesday night as well, it was a good time. Gary Sinise did not sing, but played the base. They played cover songs, but put on a show as well. He gave a very nice speech at the end and ended with "Proud to be an American" which was a crowd pleaser with the Americans, not sure about the NATO folks. A good time all around.
Now back to my run...with those of you with good metric skills- 11.7 km is 7.25 miles. Again, on a treadmill..but not too shabby.
On Thanksgiving Day, I slept in, went to the gym and ran 5K on the treadmill, went to work to briefly clean out my e-mail and we had a squadron lunch at the picnic tables. The Commander gave a nice speech and we had a very nice talk by one of the civilian engineers about the history of Thanksgiving as well as a nice prayer. We ate a little of the food there waiting for the traditional Thanksgiving meal at night. Checked in at the office a few times in the afternoon. We had traditional Thanksgiving food for dinner and it was very good. Back to the office to check the official e-mail and make some calls. A good day.
LtCol Dave Pollock, Maj Nick Lynch, Chief Alt and myself at dinner.
Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. I am most thankful that my family has done well through this whole adventure so far thanks mostly to the strength and character of my amazing wife Rebekah. She has juggled mom, home, finances, business and pregnancy with amazing stamina. We are coming up on eight weeks to go and we are looking forward to being back together and back to normal.
Thanks for following along and thanks for your e-mails and support. Until next time......
