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Our two weeks together did fly by and the days were filled with all things ordinary. Ordinary days, but because Dale was with us, I loved each one. Dale had no honey do list, but managed to fix things anyway. He easily corrected my home improvement mistakes and reattached various towel bars that Zeke had pulled off the wall. He then decided to go into battle against the tent caterpillars occupying the weeping cherry out front. Dale fell back on the old Manry solution of attacking a large swarm of creatures by hitting the nest with a big stick. When the caterpillars started dropping out of the tree onto his shirt and hair, I decided it was best to leave that job to him. We took a bush walk that greatly needed a Kirk accompaniment, since there were rocks to fall off of and water to fall into. Later, we all chose fish for the backyard pond. Dale who was most concerned with water quality bought 3 algae eaters and named them Tuck, Roll, and Golem. He also bought water plants. He spent quite a bit of time fixing his pond. Josiah chose a bright orange goldfish, the bravest of the lot and named him Napoleon. Abby chose a white and black little fish and named her Jewels. She’s sparkles just like you, Juliet. Gabe chose a hard to find orange and black fish and named him Dynamite. Zeke chose a beautiful orange and black fantail and named her Cleopatra. I decided to join the party a few days later and added Mohawk who has an orange stripe and Pirate who has a black eye patch. Hopefully, we’ll remember to feed the fish. Dale will get upset if he returns to find his pond redo neglected. A loud frog seems to have joined the fish. We hear him at night croaking out “my pond…my pond…my pond”. Last year, Gabe transported tadpoles from the pond to the creek down the road when he and Dale cleaned the pond. Maybe one came back to tell us off. Along with watching the fish, we watched the birds. When I first saw the bright blue bird on my feeder, I thought that the bluebird of happiness had come to pay a visit. After consulting my bird book I believe it is an Indigo Bunting instead. Sometimes what brings me happiness isn’t exactly what I planned would bring me happiness. The last thing we worked on together was the puzzle I had started in January. We finally finished it and discovered that a piece was missing. It looks good, but there is a piece missing. That’s how I feel when Dale is away. I am pretty good, but a piece of me is missing. These last two weeks, I had no missing piece and I enjoyed them very much.

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.

This week, Glenn and I went to Dahuk for a couple of days. After spending two days in Dahuk, we then went over to Erbil for another day. I know I need to get up to Dahuk and Erbil more frequently, and I always enjoy visiting my Resident Offices there. But I do feel guilty any time I go because of how safe and secure those areas are. I have numerous blog posts floating around in my head from this recent trip.

We had the chance to do some shopping while we were there. We wandered aimlessly through the bazaar in Dahuk with Gee. He kept asking us what we were looking to buy. We had no idea and just kept walking. I did walk in a scarf shop. I was quickly overwhelmed by the array of colors. The effect was almost dizzying!

Glenn decided he wanted a couple of plants to make his CHU more homey. So Gee took us to a small nursery in the middle of Dahuk. There was a small, elderly Kurdish gentlemen who owned and operated this nursery. Glenn asked him to show us some indoor plants, but he wouldn’t go into the makeshift greenhouse with us because he was afraid of our guns. So we went in and started looking around. Glenn found one he liked that looks like aloe vera but with thorns. Of course, when he picked it up, he immediately pricked his thumb on a thorn and let out a yelp. Everyone got a kick out of that! Periodically throughout the rest of the day, one of the Peshmerga guards would pretend to prick his thumb, yelp, then point at Glenn and laugh. Glenn was a good sport about it and can take a little pickin’.

I’m sure the kids miss my pickin’!

This week was Spirit Week at the kids school. Zeke has been a little disgruntled by the unacceptable clothing worn throughout the week by his siblings. On Monday, when we went to pick them up from school, he looked at all the kids and declared, “It’s not pajama time!” Zeke doesn’t quite understand why you have a pajama day, crazy hat day, and favorite team day. Yesterday for chapel, the high school cheerleaders came to fire up the Stafford campus. They did some stunts and a dance routine and led the classes in the cheer “Hey Eagles are you there?” Abby asked me what I thought about the cheerleaders. Abby’s teacher told her class that she would do away with the sport of cheerleading if she could. I reluctantly had to admit that I had been a cheerleader. I was terrible at basketball, volleyball, and track. I did play softball in the summer, but softball didn’t count as a school varsity sport. I desperately wanted to earn a letter, so I could wear a letterman’s jacket. Cheerleading was the means to the end. Abby asked if I wanted the letterman’s jacket to be cool. I had to admit that was one of my attempts to be cool. I never did quite succeed in being cool, but I did wear a letterman’s jacket. Gabe could not fathom that his mother had been a cheerleader, so I pulled out my old yearbook to show him the pictures. Josiah looked at the pictures and said we all looked like the people in the movie Back to the Future. Zeke looked at my pictures and said, “Mommy, what happened to your hair?” He did not care for the clothes I was wearing either. “What happened to your pants? What happened to your shirt?” Apparently the styles of the 80s don’t appeal to him.

While I love changing jobs and locations every couple of years, I can’t stand the physical process of moving. Mugs can tell you how I try to avoid having to be there on the days the movers are putting boxes on the truck or taking boxes off the truck. To me, it’s a very painful experience. I was able to avoid it this year by deploying to Iraq. So Mugs, once again, got to unpack all of our worldly goods. Abby sent me a Christmas ornament that depicts how I feel about moving.

For the past couple of months, a contractor has been building a new camp for MAO. The old MAO facility is located on FOB Diamondback. This location happens to be in the flood plain for the Tigris River. You may have heard the Mosul Dam mentioned in the news. If that dam were to collapse, FOB Diamondback could be underwater, along with many other parts of Mosul. Just across the street from FOB Diamondback is FOB Marez. As you drive out of the gate from FOB Diamondback, cross the street, and drive on to FOB Marez, you start going up hill. The new MAO location on FOB Marez is above the high water line in the event of a flood.

Construction is complete on the new camp, so for the past two days, we’ve been in the process of moving. One day was devoted to office trailers, while the other day was for living trailers. These living trailers are also called CHUs (pronounced “chews”), which stands for containerized housing units. So of course, I procrastinated as much as feasibly possible. On day 1, I woke up at about 0630, got ready, drank some coffee, boxed up my office stuff, and loaded it into my truck. The contractor was responsible for moving the office furniture. So once we cleared out, they began loading things into a connex, which was loaded onto the back of a flatbed for transport to FOB Diamondback.

Robert, the USACE logistics specialist in MAO, was overseeing the contractor for this move. Just picture a crew of about 10 guys grabbing things from numerous trailers and packing it all into a connex. At one point, the contractors brought a couch out and set it on the sidewalk. It gave Robert and me a nice comfortable seat to watch the contractor’s crane operator load the connexes onto the flatbed. I had never seen the couch before and mentioned that to Robert. It’s amazing the things you find when you move.

We spent the rest of the day getting all of the furniture moved into the appropriate offices and arranged. While this was happening, Jeremy was working on reestablishing our communications links. Our internet and phone service is provided through a satellite system. So Jeremy, along with Vickie and Nate (USACE IT folks from other locations) had fun aligning our satellite receiver. I think they were having fun, but they weren’t laughing or smiling.

Anyway, Day 2 was dedicated to moving the living CHUs. So once again, I waited until the morning of the move to throw my stuff in some duffel bags and put it in my truck. Extra sleep and coffee are much more important than preparing for moving! It’s the end of Day 2 now and this is what my new office looks like.

Of course when Mugs prepares for a move, she always purges. As you can see, the purge didn’t happen. You can’t see it from the picture, but just to the right is a blue couch that somehow ended up in my office at the end of the move!