jan 29

DAY ?? / JAN 29

            Now that I realize that I have been undisciplined in keeping up with exactly how many days we've been gone, I need to got back and fix those old posts.   I know that today is JAN 29 and that it is Sunday. 

            I slept in LATE today – and it felt good.  I finally got up at about 1045 this morning, had a hot shower and finally came into the office around 1100 or so.

            Nothing exciting or even eventful to report today.  One of our patrols went out and came back without incident, but that is about it.   Things have been very quiet on the FOB and even relatively quiet outside the fence.  Why?  I don't know.   Could it have anything to do with the Anti-Iraqi factions that recently broke off from Al-Qaeda to take up their own operations in another part of the country?   I suppose it could, but the actual cause of anything around here is very vague.  The cause and effect is hard to see from my place on the board.

            I guess the only thing of import that happened today was that I was able to extract just a bit of vengeance on the soda thief.   Here's the back story:  Every day at lunch and dinner I bring two cans of soda (unopened) from the DFAC and put them in the fridge in my CP area.   I do that so that eventually it will get full and people can have a drink from time to time – me included.  Well, while I've been trying to stockpile this fridge, someone from the ops area has been secretly taking the sodas and drinking them, without bothering to replace any, ever.   Clearly, the point is that the sodas be drank, but also, it would be nice if the other people that worked here helped stock too, right?  So, I asked who it was, so I could let them in on the plan and then they could help.   Just like back home with my kids, "someone else," drank the soda in the fridge and no one would 'fess up to it.  Today brought a tiny bit of vengeance.    I saw one of the sodas I had brought, opened on the counter and asked who's it was.  The only guy in there said it was his, and indicated that it was the Ops NCO who was drinking them.   Finally, a straight answer.  Rather than just confront him, which would have been way too easy (on him), I slipped a little of my wife's salsa juice into his drink and rubbed it around the lip of the can.   Her salsa is VERY hot and spicy and leaves an after effect that lasts for days.  As I was leaving, I saw him come back in and pick up the can.   What happened after that is still a mystery.

            The other thing I managed to do today was start on a small project for the folks back home regarding the structure of Army Units (ie.   Squads, teams, platoons, etc).  I thought I was going to do something small – maybe a one page diagram that explained it all.   Of course, that wasn't enough for me – I wanted more detail.  Now, the presentation (done in Powerpoint of course), is about six pages long and growing.   I hope to finish it tonight, but we'll see.

            Another of my jobs here is to monitor the webpages and blogs of my Soldiers so that I can see if they are putting OPSEC information out.   It also gives me something to look at and helps provide insight to the morale of the troops.  Today I noticed a blog from a Soldier about patrols.   No big deal, nothing wrong with it at all.  The only thing I noticed is that the person who wrote it has only been on two patrols since we've been here and he talks like he's doing daily gun runs.   Ah, well, whatever makes them feel better.

            Internet went down again, go figure.  I had planned on going to the gym for a little basketball today, but didn't because I'm waiting for the internet to come back up.   As it turns out, it's a good thing I didn't.  The floor is being fixed (although I don't know what was wrong with it), and won't be operational for a few days.   I guess that's a good thing because it eliminates the guilt of not going to the gym when I could be.