All this much fun

and a paycheck, too!

After a most enjoyable respite that largely involved nudity and good food, it's back to the grind. It's a sleeping-in-my-own-bed grind for a few more days, though, so that's nice.

Now...somehow, between three days ago and this morning, my belt has disappeared. My spare belt is packed up, but I remember seeing my primary one just last night.

[sigh]

The Mister has got to be counting the seconds until I get out of here for the duration, and his life is again free of giant heaps of foliage green crap strewn around the house.

Home

for a couple of days.

Have I mentioned lately how much I adore air conditioning, beer and yes, even hysterical dogs?

Escaped!

Not from the greater San Antonio area (yet), but I did get away from lovely Camp Rustic by throwing myself into a 15-passenger van that was headed to Gandalf AFB and pretending I had some pressing business here.

Lord knows that as we wind down, I have no pressing business there.

I thought I'd share with y'all a couple of shots of our lovely quarters. They're really not too bad, as little hut-things go.



Occupancy is 12 - six per side on cots. That's a little tight, but not awful. We have two female huts, and so we've got a little more space than that to stretch out. Concrete floors, little heaters, fan system.



There's a big long line of 'em - 17 in our row. I thought about taking a picture of the interior, but decided we can all do without that shot.

A plumbing problem in their latrine building has forced the men to share ours (we managed to get our own building after much lobbying). Normally, when we have to share a latrine, we designate and hour in the morning and an hour in the evening as "female shower time." It normally works out so we have a good hour on one end of the day, and a less desirable one on the other end.

But now...we are a little giddy with power, because, as our time here is short, a powerful ally sided with us and the men have the designated times.

Overheard yesterday from a male: You mean if I'm busy between 2000 and 2130, I don't get a shower?

Female soldier with shit-eating grin: That's about how it works! You get another block of time in the morning, though!
It truly is the little things in life that keep one going.

(an aside - it would be truly difficult to maintain this schedule for long. Not because of the shower issues, but because of the washing machine access. There are two washers and two dryers in each latrine, and it's very difficult to get your laundry done in a latrine you can't be in most of the day. We'd have to give the men the greater share of the day if we were going to be using the arrangement for very long)

Adventures in land nav

Actually, it wasn't that exciting. My team lacked a lieutenant or a private, usually the source for great land nav tales. We did learn, however, that when someone needs to crawl though thick brush with a compass, that someone ends up being me - not either of the very large gentlemen on my team.

As land nav courses went, this one lacked the usual fun parts. You know, the point signs that have fallen over, concealed coils of old concertina wire, giant ditches. It did have UXO, though, which always adds a little something.

We've continued with our relentless online-class-taking. We've also added a new activity in which a soldier is given two copies of his or her orders and then, over the course of the next several days, is asked for six or seven. Since we have no copiers, we are trying to figure this one out.