The end is in sight. I finally was able to go on my mid tour leave in early November to celebrate my 30th birthday with friends n family. I enjoyed spending time with my family and relaxing at home. I did not get out much, so if I did not see you we can catch up in March/April. I did finally (after about 8 years of having a motorcycle endorsement on my license) buy a motorcycle. The nice weather in November allowed my so get my fix of bike riding to last me until spring. Leave went by very fast and I look forward to getting home again.
At the rate of my posts this could be my last post, but I have a little catching up to do. Things up until I left had not really changed that much. I was working in the temporary badging area at the entry control point and I was in a pretty comfortable routine. Work, eat, n workout....pretty simple. Now that I am back in Iraq, I have been switched to a new job at the ECP and is a consolidation of two peoples work in the permanent bading area. In addition to the new job, we have started the process of packing up some of our equipment to ship back home. It is amazing how much stuff a person can accumulate over 9 months. (please do not send anymore packages)(but thanks for everything people have sent) Also in addition to the two above mentioned things, I have decided to compete for the NCO of the Quarter competition for our company. If it goes well, there will be more competitions and less time. Basically my plate is spilling over, but it makes the time go by. I am looking at being stateside by the end of January and have some military schooling to take care of to finish up this adventure. I have been pleased with my experience so far, and I can say that I have had the opportunity to do alot of different things that are positive in nature. I can say that I was pesimestic about leaving the motorpool (thats what I came here for....to be a mechanic), but have had opportunities to grow that the motorpool could not have offered me.
The weather here pretty much sucks now. It seems like it rains everyday and I will try gather some interesting pictures of what rainfall does to Iraq. It makes a dirty place even dirtier. Water does not absorb into the ground and the concrete barriers have a hard time staying in one place when the ground gets soft n muddy.
I have enjoyed the opportunity to work on my physical conditioning. I believe I am in the best shape of my life and hope I can maintain my body once I get back home. I have lost about 40 lbs and had to buy new clothes when I was home on leave. I cant imagine what my work suits will look like when I try them on when I am ready to go back to work. I guess that will be another shopping trip.
Hopefully some more posts to come,
Sam
