When the Smoke Clears

In a few of the free moments or when standing around waiting for others, I read on my Kindle.
Right now, great revitalization of the old Pulp novels: Money Shot by Christa Faust. (Hard Case Crime #40)
“I felt like I would die if I didn’t rinse off. There was no soap and the rusty, lukewarm [...]

On the hill, cold hits us sooner than the people in the village, but the sun lasts longer, deceiving us into believing the night will not be as harsh. It is.
In the distance we see small lights, the checkpoints on even taller mountain peaks ringing the valley. They will be colder tonight. They have [...]

It’s a day for a pause.
I’m going to do my best to not really go to work today, though that could change at a moment’s notice. After several weeks of getting my feet on the ground working 14, 16, and a few 18 hour days since being pushed out to a remote location, it’s [...]

Wow. This site went down for a few hours. Turns out it was time to renew my domain name. Four years. And today is all about fours.
The one that hits hardest hit today.
Forty.
My kind mother brought me into this world forty years ago. Oh, sure it should have been forty years ago [...]

“You will learn to drink tea before this tour is over,” Vicki advised me.
“I already drink tea,” I assured her. “Regularly.” Night was bearing down, no stars in the sky from all the dust a storm stirred up earlier in the day. People crowded around tables though all the shops had already closed, leaving [...]

One thing I asked was that while I was away, please don’t let my country get too messed up. Slow it down a little and think about what is going on instead of going purely on emotional appeal.
And so, one of my friends is doing it. I want to see him at a more [...]

For Boneman…
A “Fobbit” is a term used for someone in Afghanistan or Iraq who spends their “combat” tour inside a Forward Operating Base or “FOB.” They earn the right to wear a combat patch as a result, even though they never go on missions and probably only go outside the wire to get a ride [...]

It’s true, normally I’m in remote places. About to be in even more remote places.
Things I have learned:
* Kabul International Airport (KIA… unfortunate letters) has great wireless internet access in the lounge.
* There are MANY more shades of brown than I thought possible.
* Working with NATO forces can be cool.
* [...]

Re: Situations
1. If Facebook can connect several million people all over the world at the same time including chatting and transferring messages, it’s about time y’all figure out how to keep the email (AKO/DKO) site up and running for official work/communication.
1.a. Fewer wow features and web programming would be nice since y’all usually send [...]

So with all the waiting… what do we do when we can’t go anywhere but within the confines of wire?
Why we wander. We visit with people, sharing rumors of how to get on a flight most quickly. I’ve gone so far as to actually be loaded onto and strapped into a seat in a [...]

I awoke from a dream that finally defined of what the sounds reminded me. Finally.
Sailing in a busy harbor.
I thought I had stored those memories away years ago, so when they started again, I was disturbed by the vaguely familiar footprints on the sand.
Throughout the day we hide in tents of one [...]

Can’t always get online with my computer. When I can, posts will come furiously, hopefully in the order I wrote.

There’s places I’ve had to be. They don’t often allow access to uploading posts. And then there is the tempo of the day, which often interferes with sleep, rest, thoughts beyond the next step. It reflects in the lack of writing. But I hear I am about to have access to and requests to write [...]

Farah Fawcett passed away due to cancer. The lady messed up my world but I still admire her. See, Farah was a little younger than my mother. When that famous poster came out, she and my mom looked quite similar. I won’t lie, my mother is beautiful. Always has been. But to see someone so [...]

“My surgeon, he’s good, but… NO sense of humor,” mom told me as we talked on the phone. She had already shocked me last week. It was effective, blood chilling.
A little over a week ago mom’s back broke. She was complaining of lower back pain. She became insistent to her doctor that it wasn’t [...]