The horror

Look what was in my CHU.



Of course, it was alive when it first zoomed by my head. Now I'm afraid of my CHU, since insects that large make my soul shudder.

Odd things

So we are in Iraq, right?

Iraq is a desert. The part of Iraq we are in is, in fact, experiencing a drought. Drought in a desert is, of course, dry.

Even away from the rivers, occasionally you will see grass here. It's a status symbol. You'd see small (like 4-fooy-square) patches in the front of the occasional house, that sort of thing.

We were out trooping around yesterday, and I ran across an odd one.



That's a lawn - okay - but that's also a sprinkler. A sprinkler that is running. Did I mention that was no-kidding 95 degree in the shade at 1000 yesterday?

Hooah, basic conservation skills.

Memorial Day

Same statement as I put up every year, folks.

Cook out. Barbecue some critter. Hang out with your family and friends. Enjoy yourselves, because that's what the folks who didn't make it home would have wanted you to do. Do that for them, because they gave up a lifetime's worth of slightly-charred burgers and games of catch to preserve those things for the rest of us.