We finally received our household goods shipment from Australia. Three women from the church came to help me with the unpacking. While I stood outside, initialing every box that came off the truck and supervising the careful unloading of the precious motorcycle, a young girl attempted to sort out and put away my kitchen items. In Australia, I had more kitchen cabinets than I knew what to do with and here, my kitchen cabinets are sparse. I told her to just start shoving things in them until nothing else would fit and then stack things on the table. Later, when I began to rearrange what she had done, I discovered two cabinets full of coffee cups. 46 coffee cups! I will admit that per my penance of using my Christmas dishes, 12 of those are Christmas coffee cups, but still. His most precious collection was cluttering up my kitchen. So, downstairs they go into the basement to join his old recliner and every awful military hail and farewell gift he has ever received. I’m quite certain that in his duffel bag when he returns from the desert there will be at least one cup to join all the rest.
Previously, I gave you a look at my vehicle (not to be confused with Rob’s version of my vehicle). If you look closely at the antenna, you may notice that there is a small white styrofoam ball on the tip. This was placed there by the previous OIC, a US Navy Commander (equivalent to an Army LTC). The OIC’s vehicle and the Deputy OIC’s vehicle are identical Suburbans. So they used distinctive antenna balls for easy identification. The Deputy has a yellow smiley ball on his vehicle. Here is a close up of my antenna:
Go Navy!
Yesterday was the first day of school for Josiah, Abby, and Gabe. Josiah is in 7th grade and has now attended 5 different schools. Do you think, maybe, we move a little too much? Abby was awake and ready to go at 0430. She hopes one day to be a teacher and loves school. She was ready to go make new friends. When I woke Josiah up, he asked me if he really had to go back to school. A little different attitude than his sister. I sat in the orientation in Gabe’s class. The teacher explained to them that when she called attendance they were to say here or present. She apologized ahead of time if she pronounced their name wrong and told them she would call them by a nickname if they preferred it. Attendance was called and the children said a quiet “Here” or “Present” until it was Gabe’s turn of course. There is nothing quiet about that child. He is “one louder” or as they say in Australia, “full on”. When his name was called he loudly said, “Here!”, followed by “And I have a nickname! It’s Gabe!” Some of the other parents in the class snickered quietly. However, his declaration seemed to have emboldened the rest of the class. After that there were quite a few, “Here! I have a nickname too!”
As I was walking out to the vehicle to drive to dinner, I stoppped to take a picture of this approaching sandstorm. Gee, who was with me, made me give him my camera so that he could get me in the picture.
The sand can have a pretty dramatic effect on the sun. Here’s another picture I snapped tonight. This was after the storm had passed by, but there was still a lot of sand in the air.
It’s starting to cool off a little here in Mosul. The highs lately have been around 110 F (43 C). At night it is getting down to about 80 F (27 C). Earlier this week, however, it seemed quite hot. When I took a look at our thermometer, this is what I saw:
But it’s a dry heat!
Yes nothing like an Organizational...