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Atlanta is the headquarters of Coca Cola, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go to Coca Cola World. Coca Cola is a vice that I periodically swear off and just as periodically, I start drinking again. One day, when my Pastor was taking a drink of soda, he declared it not evil. Then he hesitated and said, “Well, maybe.” That pretty much sums up my stance on coke. During Abby’s Science Fair, two different students did science projects to convince people that coke was completely unhealthy. One student tried to determine which brand, coke or pepsi, would dissolve a large piece of meat quicker. They came out even. Another student used coke to clean rust off cars. In Australia, the majority of people drink lemonade (a sprite or seven up type drink, not the American version of lemonade). However, they do sell coke in stores and restaurants. To Dales dismay, they do not sell root beer in Australia. At one point we actually imported some root beer and our Aussie friends all declared it disgusting. I grew up in a root beer drinking family. The big treat was to go to the A&W and get a literal frosty mug of root beer. For awhile we went to The Pop Shop and would have bottles filled with orange, grape, and cola soda. I grew up saying pop or soda. Dale, however, grew up calling everything a coke. “Do you want a coke?”, they ask. If you say yes, they will ask you which kind…”Coke, Sprite, Root beer, Dr Pepper?” It’s very confusing. However, the majority of time it is a coke, the favored drink of all Manrys. In Louisiana, the temperature is so hot and humid, the sticky air causes you to melt into your seat once you sit down and you don’t have enough energy to get up and get yourself something to drink. So, throughout the entire visit, everyone is trying to convince their significant other to get up and get them a drink. “Honey, will you fix me a coke?”, they ask. If someone is forced to get up to go to the bathroom or check on the kids, they know that they will be filling coke orders. Dale’s family buys coke in the 2 liter bottles. So, in order to fix a coke, you fill a giant plastic cup with ice and pour the coke on top. The only Manry who drinks coke from a can is Dale’s Daddy and he hides the cans of coke in a cooler in his truck so that everyone won’t drink all his coke. If you ever receive the privilege of being offered one of his cans of coke, you are in high favor indeed. (Just pickin, Sir.) Manry’s begin drinking coke at a very young age. When Dale and I were first married, I watched one of his nephews drinking coke from his baby bottle. (Don’t worry, Tami, I’m sure they’ll never guess that it was your son.) Anyway, Coca Cola World was a must visit location because I heard you could drink coke to your hearts content. Coca Cola world consists of a lot of standing in line or as Aussies say, waiting in the q. We stood in line to purchase tickets, we stood in line to go through security, we stood in line to enter, we stood in line for the movie theater, we stood in line to see the displays, we stood in line to see the bottle works. By the time everyone gets to the tasting station, people are tired of standing in line and it is a bit of a free for all. The first movie they made you watch was dreadful, but the 3D movie of a professor trying to figure out the secret recipe was quite good. The movie took you around the world, snow boarding, had plenty of explosions, and fruit flying at you. You got squirted with water and you seat moved and shook. The bottle works that had an assembly line of robots, gears, and machines that bottle coke was interesting. I imagine Gabe will invent something like that some day. But, the highlight was the tasting station. They had soda machines with all the coke products from around the world. There was one from India that was made from vegetables. Josiah took one drink and poured it out. There was one from Italy that tasted like liquid sugar. The two we liked were Smart Apple and Kiwi Mango. Our shoes stuck to the floor of the room because of all the soda that had been spilled. There was one guy with a mop and bucket trying to clean up some of it, but it was a hopeless cause. They must run a giant floor washing machine over that floor every night. Josiah and I drank coke products until we were sick. On the way out, you can grab a bottle of coke to go. Coca Cola World is imprinted on the bottle. I put the bottles in the fridge for us to bring to the airport and drink at lunch before we flew back. We had only brought carry on luggage and the bottles were greater than 3 oz, so I knew we had to drink them. When we got to the airport, I attempted to twist off the tops and realized we needed a bottle opener. I went to the gift shop for help and the attendant kindly pulled a decorative Atlanta bottle opener off the rack and opened them for me. The other girl who worked there saw her and said, “I had to do that the other day. Everyone wants to keep their coke bottles, but they can’t take them through security with liquid in them.” As I drank my coke out of a glass bottle I remembered something Dale’s Daddy had told me… “There’s nothing better than drinking coke out of a glass bottle.” I’m not certain if I’m the first Manry to make the pilgrimage to Atlanta, but I’m sure I won’t be the last.

My and Josiah’s transportation adventure to Atlanta provided us with much suspense. On Friday, the day we flew there were thunderstorms, tornado watches and equipment malfunctions in Atlanta. We checked in quite early for our flight and I noticed that all the flights ahead of us were delayed 2 hours. I asked the representative why our flight was not delayed and she replied, “Oh, they must have caught up.” “Sure they did”, I thought. “More likely it just hasn’t been posted yet”. As suspected, by the time we sat down at the gate, the flight was delayed. An hour after the flight’s scheduled departure, they started to load the plane. Josiah and I had seats toward the front, so we were waiting for our turn. With the plane 3/4 full, they stopped loading because Atlanta had completely shut down for a hail storm. 30 minutes later, we loaded the plane full of pessimistic travelers who were convinced we were not leaving Virginia that night. Once everyone was loaded, we waited another 30 minutes for permission from Atlanta to leave Virginia. The flight had a bit of turbulence, so the cabin crew decided not to offer the meager service that was due: a bag of peanuts, cookies, or crackers and a drink. At some point they must have felt a bit of remorse and walked through the plane handing out bags of peanuts and a cup of water. I thought fondly of flight service in Australia which is so far above any flight service in America. When we landed, Atlanta airport was a madhouse, full of travelers who had missed connections because of the delays and cancellations. Josiah and I made our way over to the MARTA (Atlanta train system). On the way, I bought 2 individual pizzas for dinner thinking we would eat on the train. Well, you are not allowed to eat on the train. The airport is in south Atlanta and our hotel was all the way north. The train ride took 40 minutes. My favorite comment from the train driver was when he said, “We are axing you to be careful when you exit the train because the platforms are slippery.” I know if people are axing me something, I am in the south. After we got off the train, we had to get a cab to the hotel. I do know that English is not the primary language of cab drivers. However, for some strange reason, I expect them to speak at least a little English and to know where they are going. We got into the cab and I told the driver the name and suburb of the hotel. I asked him if he knew where that was. He mumbled something that sounded in the affirmative. He called back to his dispatcher and only Spanish could be heard in the cab. After he had driven around for awhile he asked me if he should turn right or left. Having no idea where I was or where I was going, I was at a loss. I remembered that I had the hotel information with driving directions and pulled it out and tried to hand it to him. The directions were written in English, of course, and he couldn’t read them. I started reading off road numbers and names in the hopes of arriving at a common location. When I said, “La Vista Road,” He got all excited. “La Vista Road! La Vista Road!”, he repeated. Then he asked me, “Right or Left?” At one point in this mini recreation of planes, trains, and automobiles, Josiah looked at me and said, “All this for a spelling bee?” “Yes, son, all this for a spelling Bee.” We finally got to the hotel at 10 pm, ate our cold pizza and went to bed. The next day after the bee, we wanted to take the train into downtown Atlanta. So, this involved another cab driver. The hotel called the cab and the driver spoke English fairly well although his native tongue was from Africa. We did manage to find a train station although it wasn’t the one I had asked to go to. I helped him out by pointing out places to drop us off while he was making u turns apparently at a loss as to which way to go. On the train ride home, Josiah and I tried to guess what language our cab driver would speak this time. Josiah went for French and I guessed he would be from India. We entered the cab to Spanish singing island music. He didn’t speak English either, but he did know where he was going. Friends who also attended the bee spared us from another cab ride by giving us a ride to the airport. Thus ended my pursuit of an English speaking cab driver who knew where he was going. If ever I find one, I’ll ax him if he’s the only one.

On Saturday, Josiah participated in the Southeast Region ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International) spelling bee in Atlanta Georgia. There were 70 spellers from the states of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The bee was held in a banquet hall. As we were sitting and waiting, Josiah commented, “I’m not sure what the disco ball is for.” Lighting a disco ball during a spelling bee would certainly add some lightheartedness to what is a tense occasion. I think I’ll recommend it for next year. I then explained to him that a banquet hall is more commonly used for wedding receptions and pointed out the wood dance floor and stage. I showed Josiah the program that declared the winner would receive $125. At which point he said, “I should have studied more.” Kids and parents were in all levels of spirit and dress. One boy wore a suit, some wore school uniforms, most were nicely dressed, but a few were in jeans or flip flops. Watching the other students and their families provided me with much entertainment. The Grandma in front of me was so nervous for her two grandchildren, I wanted to pat her on the back. I was certain that one speller was going to faint up there and another rubbed her hands in anxiety throughout. One middle school boy was completely disinterested and read a book when it was not his turn. The children were randomly assigned a number and Josiah was blessed to receive a higher number which proved helpful later on. The first round was a practice round and Josiah spelled the word – ACCOUNT. If you misspell in the practice round, you are not out. Round 1 then started and I had great empathy for the kid who was assigned #1. He looked like an 8th grader and had been to the regional bee the year before. For his word, he got budgie (a small Australian parrot). Now all you Aussies out there would think it impossible for a kid not to know how to spell budgie, but while most Australian words end in ie, most American words end in y. Budgie was on the 5th grade difficult list which I am quite certain this 8th grader did not think he needed to study. He had never heard the word before and spelled it wrong. I felt awful for him and began hoping that Josiah could at least get through the first round. For round 1, Josiah spelled OPERETTA. Round 2 provided his first near miss. Josiah spelled CALLUS. He said CAL and then paused and thought about whether or not it had 2 L’s in it. I had my head in my hands, mentally sending him L’s in my mind. He got it right. In round 3, Josiah spelled ONOMATOPOEIA. When the judge said the word, the audience groaned, thinking Josiah finished. However, thanks to Josiah’s English teacher who made him write a line of a poem in onomatopoeia, the word was familiar to him. In round 4, Josiah spelled COALESCE. In round 5, he spelled SOLILOQUY. At the start of round 6, there were 17 spellers left. In all the previous rounds, the judge had used words from a study list provided to the students. In round 6, she began to give them words not on their study list. In round 6, Josiah spelled COMPREHENSIBLE. In round 7, there were 7 spellers left. Here is where Josiah’s higher number proved beneficial. The three students ahead of him spelled their words incorrectly. Therefore, the remaining 4 students were automatically the 4 chosen to go to the National competition in DC even though at that moment, they had not spelled any more words right than the others. At the start of the competition, the judge told the students that the spelling bee was not fair. It was the luck of the draw. At that moment I realized what she meant. Several students were given words I had never heard before and knew that if Josiah had gotten those words, he would have been eliminated. In round 7, Josiah spelled ECOSPHERE. By round 8, only Josiah and one middle school girl were left. In order to win, he had to spell 2 words correctly in a row. He spelled PATINA and misspelled VENTRICAL (correct spelling: ventricle). The girl then misspelled. On his next attempt, he misspelled GENIE (correct spelling: genii) When the judge spoke the sentence, Josiah was supposed to understand that she wanted the plural form. She pronounced it just like genie and I couldn’t understand how he had gotten it wrong. I was his arbitrator and had the right to approach the table when I thought something unfair had occurred. To Josiah’s mortification, I approached the table and asked the judge for the proper spelling. When the spell off for the final two students began, she had stopped giving them the correct spelling for the words they missed. She informed me it was genii. I sat down. (I do believe that she pronounced it wrong and should have made it sound like gean-ee-i) The girl missed her word and Josiah spelled PERPETUITY. He then misspelled FEDUCIARY (correct spelling: fiduciary) The girl received two words that Josiah was sure she could spell and he thought that he had lost, but she misspelled succumbed. Josiah then spelled METTLESOME and UNTRAMMELED to win. I jumped out of my seat and gave him a high 5 and shook his opponents hand. When I turned around, I discovered that everyone else was still sitting and now looking at me. My only excuse is too many days watching the families of game show contestant winners run up on stage. Josiah won a plaque and $125. He will now participate in the National Spelling Bee in Washington DC on May 10th. So, he is not yet untrammeled from studying his word list.

Finally, after 8 months, I succeeded in breaking a pair of my sunglasses. I have an uncanny ability to break and lose sunglasses. When we lived in Wisconsin, I actually backed over a pair of Ray-Bans with my Ford F-150 pickup truck. I think Mugs is impressed with this ability in me! While trying to fly to Speicher last week, I had changed to the clear lens since the flight was scheduled for the evening. I placed the dark lens in the protective case on the front of my body armor. The next morning, I pulled the dark lens out of the protective case and discovered that I had somehow broken them right down the middle.

The nameplate in the picture is made from local marble. Many of the rocks in this area are marble. Sarah had this nameplate made for me from one of the rocks picked up on the FOB.

Inshallah is an Arabic word meaning “If God (Allah) wills it”. The phrase is used when Muslims refer to something happening in the future. They pepper their conversations with inshallah. For example, one of my Engineers may ask a contractor “When are you going to submit an updated construction schedule?” A typical response from a Muslim contractor would be “I will have the new schedule to you on Tuesday, inshallah.” This comes from an Islamic scripture that says “And never say of anything ‘I shall do such and such thing tomorrow’. Except if Allah wills it.” Sounds kind of familiar, doesn’t it?

Now when Tuesday rolls around and the contractor did not submit a new schedule, I’ll ask him why he didn’t submit the schedule. He’ll reply “mashallah” which means “God has willed it”. Inshallah has become almost an escape clause for not doing something you were supposed to do. This has made it a very popular phrase with the soldiers here in Iraq.

I spent the last two nights sitting at the airfield trying to get a flight to COB Speicher in Tikrit. It was time for the semi-annual Engineer Conference. I was there for the last conference in October 2007. Check-in for flights is 1 hour prior to lift-off. I was scheduled for a 2330 flight on Tuesday night. When I checked in at 2230, I was told that the flight was on a weather delay. Everyone was instructed to stand-by and wait for updates. An hour later at 2330, the person working the desk announced that the delay was still on and to stand-by again. The same thing happened at 0030 and 0130. Finally at 0200, the flight was officially cancelled.

When your flight is cancelled, that’s it. You are not automatically booked on the next flight. You must request a new flight. The catch is that all flight requests must be submitted at least 72 hours prior to the flight. But you can sign up for stand-by at any time. So I went back at 2120 on Wednesday to wait on stand-by for a 2220 flight to Speicher. At check-in, I was told everything was on schedule. The board showed the flight consisted on 2 Blackhawks. Each Blackhawk will typically carry about 11 troops in addition to the crew. So that meant 22 seats. There were 11 people that had previously booked for the flight, so that left 11 seats for stand-by. I think there were about 25 of us waiting on stand-by. Normally, you would think that the first 11 on the list would be told to wait, and everyone else would be told to go home. But that’s not the case because sometimes they have the wrong aircraft on the list. If the flight shows up with a Chinook instead of a Blackhawk, then that means an extra 30 available seats on that one bird. So in true Army fashion, once again, we wait.

Well, at 2230, the desk officer announced the flight was again on weather delay. This happened again at 2330. But at 2355, he gave us the good news, “it’s on”. He got us all organized in our different lines, one for scheduled passengers and another for stand-by passengers, in order of priority. We gave him our ID cards so that he could scan them into the passenger tracking system. He was finalizing his instructions at about 0020 when another flight operations person came out to report that the flight was cancelled. The birds had left their initial location, ran in to some bad weather, and had to return to their starting point.

Why didn’t I go to the Engineer Conference in Speicher? Mashallah.