Fuck
I’ve always been told that swearing is just the easy way out of expressing your true feelings. However, that is the only word that describe’s my current mood. You can say a lot with that one word, and I would bet that everyone will take it to mean something a little bit different. So anyway, that’s my excuse. If you don’t like it go fuck yourself.
I thought that my life previous to this experience was monotonous, and to a degree it was. I would wake up every weekday and drive down the same roads to the same job to do basically the same thing I did the day before. Just like most people I would then drive home (on the same roads) have basically the same conversation with my wife, tuck the kids into bed and watch the same television shows. Ahhh, the american dream.
Being out here for the last four months I now have an entirely new view on monotony. For 122 days now I have been sitting in the same chair at the same desk for 12 hours a day. No weekends, no sick days, no vacation. 122 days, 1464 hours of sitting at the same desk in the same room in front of the same monitors. Sure something happens every once in a while and I have to fix it, but most of the time I sit and stare. I find things to fill the time, I’m not trying to say I’m deprived. I have a phone to call home, an internet connection, video games, movies and books. But it’s always the same.
When I’m not sitting in this chair I sit in my little metal box, sandwiched between 2 other metal boxes, which in turn are sandwiched between hundreds of boxes. They are all exactly the same. A box with 3 doors, 3 windows and two dividers. I can hear the person in the box next to me scratch thier ass, I can hear them breath.
What else is there to say but fuck?
Instructions for using the head
You must click on the image and read this. :)
These instructions are posted on the inside of every stall door in the bathroom of the building I work in. As bad as the plumbing is this is good advice, but I laughed out loud when I read it.
There used to be a different sheet taped to the door, but it wasn’t a low level set of instructions like this is. I think the previous posting said something like this:
“If you are one of the awesome ones that uses a whole roll, please let someone know when there is a clog so that this bathroom does not smell like a batcave.”
Canon A590 IS
I couldn’t find my camera when I was leaving to come over here and I’ve been due for a replacement for a while anyway (my old PS was a Canon G3, pretty old.) So I figured I would pick one up when I got over here. Problem is that there isn’t much of a camera selection at the PX and I don’t really want to have one sent here because it would need to be declared and I don’t feel comfortable sending stuff through the mail with a description and price right on top of the box.
Personal section
I moved all of the kids stories into the personal section, along with a couple of other things, then password restricted that page. If you think I’ll give you an account and password, let me know and I’ll get it done.
Using the ‘Contact’ button will probably be the quickest way.
Mailing address
I was going to post my address here a while back, but it was changing so I have been waiting to get the new one. So if anyone has the desire to actually take out a piece of paper and pen and write me a letter here it is.
Stephen Cott
II MEF FWD IMO
Unit 73920
FPO AE 09509-3920
Tour of my room in Iraq
Just a quick 360 degree view of my room with bad commentary. It doesn’t take long to go over the whole thing.
I got a little carried away at the end with the wobbly computer image, hopefully it doesn’t make anyone sick :)
Not much going on
Still pretty quiet here, other than helicopters. I swear they are going to land right on my room sometimes.
Everyone told me that I was going to get sick when I got here, they said everyone does just wait. Well I’ve been here about a month and I thought I had avoided it but I guess not. Last night I started to notice a bit of a head cold and it’s developed into a pretty good one. Hopefully I’ll get over it soon.
The weather is still pretty mild, I believe it is in the 60’s or 70’s during the day (I sleep all day so I’m not really sure.) It is staying around 40 degrees at night which isn’t all that bad. Thankfully it hasn’t rained much, it has only rained for one day since I’ve been here and it didn’t last very long. I’m told that when it rains hard it gets pretty messy and I can see how it would. Even after the small rainstorm we had a couple of weeks ago there was mud everywhere. It’s really sticky mud as well, almost impossible to get off of your shoes; then when it dries it comes off as dust and rocks and makes an enormous mess on the floor.
Settling in
I’m getting much more comfortable out here as the days go by, it’s only been a few but I’m feeling much more settled than I did on the first day. My schedule should stop shifting around here pretty soon as well so that will help. It looks like I’ll be working the night shift probably from 4pm to 4am. That’s kind of a good thing because it’s a bit slower and I’ll have more time to study. We also have a DSN phone in the office and I can get connected to a switchboard out in Kitsap County and make free local calls to home, and since I’m at work at night it’s daytime back in the states so everyone is awake.
No one ever let me know if the video worked OK or not so I’m assuming it did. Hopefully I’ll get another story read here in the next couple of days and get it posted.
It has warmed up a bit today and the wind is not blowing. It’s kind of nice not having to wear gloves and a stocking hat in the middle of the day in the desert. I believe it is supposed to make it back up to the mid 60’s next week and only drop to the mid 40’s at night. Lately it’s been in the low 20’s at night with a wind chill around 7 to 10.
Finally Leaving (For Reals)
Hopefully I will be on my way into Iraq soon. There was a bit of an issue with getting my Kevlar helmet and flack jacket issued but that has worked it self out now. I’m just waiting to get my passport back and be cleared to fly again before I can leave.
The internet access where I’m at now sucks, and it costs $5 an hour to suck so I havn’t been on much the last day or so.
My sleep schedule is pretty screwed up still. I slept most of the day away yesterday in a tent, was up most of the night and then caught 3 hours of sleep early this morning. I’ll probably end up sleeping most of today again just for a lack of anything better to do.
I don’t have any new pictures lately, there’s nothing interesting here to take pictures of, just lots of tents and trailers. There is a McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC and Subway here though.
The temperature has been a lot lower than I expected. It feels like it gets down into the 30’s at night and peaks at around 60-70 during the day. My tent stays a constant 74 degrees though so it’s not so bad.
On my way out
I’ll be on my way in a bit, and I’m not really sure when I will have internet access again so it could be a while before I can post again. Hopefully it will only be a couple of days though.