Thanks Dave & C-love and Jason!

Hey Dave and C-love- thanks for the presents! It's always cool to get unexpected gifts. I really appreciate them.

Jason- thanks for the music! For those of you who are into bluegrass, you should check out Psychograss. They're yet another band that Jason has turned me on to. Good stuff.

Obviously yesterday was a good mail day! It's definitely added a needed bright spot to life in the big sandbox.

I've had a lot of stuff going on and been a little down in case you hadn't noticed. I've been trying to expand myself as a person and self realizations can be a bitch! Maybe I'll talk about it at some point, but this is a pretty public forum and I don't know all of the folks who read it so now isn't the time.

Let's see- I finished reading Cabin Fever: Notes from a Part-Time Pioneer by William Sullivan on Sunday (ironic in a private way). I finished reading The Rule of Four this morning. Today I started on Crimes Against Nature by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. I think Lonesome Traveler (Kerouac) will be next.................

Chris and I have been working hard to established a good working relationship with the military medical staff here. We actually have doctors now and they are interested in teaching us so we have started having training class with them in the mornings over breakfast. Nothing like having a doctor teaching you stuff that you normally wouldn't get to do as a paramedic and treating you with respect- that's a great feeling. For any paramedics who read this, you should check into remote medicine sometime. It adds some new twist that are great, especially when you are burned out like I was (yes, I'm admitting that I was burned out).

I found some flowers the other day too. They were nothing more than little yellow flowers that looked kind of like dandelions, but I was happy to see them. I know that sounds silly, but we've had a really dry year so not much is growing. The base was basically leveled with a dozer when 4th ID was here so not much grows except around the ROWPU ponds (reverse osmosis water purification unit). It was akin to seeing a flowering weed breaking through the concrete in a city- a defiant fist sticking up in spite of everything going against it.

The weather has been pleasant- morning require a light coat and then it warms up enough to walk around in short sleeves with a breeze that would be pleasant if not for the omnipresent smell of generator.

The bad guys blew up a police station in town yesterday. We heard the explosion and then saw the smoke rising. More policemen dead. Sad.

Well that's about it for now.