Sunday, January 20, 2008

I didn't know it got THIS cold here...

Alright, well it has been a little bit since my last post and that is partially due to a little bit of laziness on my part compounded with the inability to access my Blogger account from the outpost. I was going to put a post up right before I left, but I figured, no I'll just do it once I get to the outpost. Well, as I've talked about before the people who control the firewall that prevents us from going to many websites, I have noticed are very bi-polar when it comes to allowing/denying access to Blogger. Sometimes they do and others they dont. One day I may be able to get on and the next I wont and then the next day again I can't. It's pretty crazy and it can get quite annoying sometimes. Gets my hopes up.

Charlie doing what he does best!The first thing that I wanted to post about was some updates on our situation with our adopted dog at the outpost, Charlie. As many of you know that have been reading my blog for a while, or even those of you that have noticed the sidebar link to a website I have up dedicated to this cause, is that I have been working my ass off trying to take care of things and figured things out as for a way to get Charlie back to the US. Myself along with many others have gotten attached to him and the thought of leaving him behind when we re-deploy makes my stomach turn. He's such an awesome dog, and so began my mission of trying to get him home.

I won't break it all down here (just visit Charlie site or read the first post about Charlie to learn more) but basically I've gotten him shots here in Iraq, food, a travel cage as well as coordinated everything for his travel and return home, all except how to get him out of Iraq. With the end of our deployment approaching, I was begining to worry as a few options that I was working had not worked out. Fortunatly just about a week and a half ago I received some additional help in this area, and was put in touch with someone that will be able to get him out of Iraq and on his way home to the US! I had to talk with some other people to work out some minor details and some coordination stuff, but at this point just about everything is in place to make this happen, just waiting on an exact date!! Hopefully should be happening within the next couple of weeks. It still doesn't seem real, but I'm so excited that this will be finally happening. I can't wait for his journey to begin!

This latest rotation out to the outpost wasn't quite as bad as the last one I talked about. Of course, being deeper in to the winter, the average temperatures were lower, but this time both the heaters in the guard towers were working, although one much better than the other. Our shack thing that we chill in while working the gate didn't have heat most of the time, but towards the end guys came in fixing and adding heaters all over the place so we got a semi-functial one out there. Overall, it wasn't all that bad, despite still have a cold shift. I ended up getting decently sick for a couple days, but fortunatly that was it. I still have a lagging cough, but for the most part I'm over it. I hate being sick and lately I seem to be getting at least a little sick each time we head out there. Quite unusual considering that I normally get sick maybe once or twice a year.

Speaking of the cold, a story of amazement needs to be told. I wish I was telling this from a first hand experience but I can't say that I was there. It ended up happening while I was a asleep and I'm a little bummed that I wasn't woken up. Anyways, the day before we headed out to the outpost it had been raining. Nothing crazy, just a slow steady rain, which in its own part sucked because it turned pretty much most of our base and a lot of Baghdad in to a giant mudpit. Anyways, the temperatures had been dropping and apparently in the night the temps dropped below freezing and coming early morning, the steady slight rain turned to snow!!

Gives new meaning to, must be a cold day in hell!I know it sounds crazy, and I didn't believe it at first. I had to get a 2nd person to verify this story and sure enough. My first reaction was, "Since when does it snow in hell?!?" I then realized how much more it sucked here than Phoenix. Not only does it get slighly hotter in the summer but even colder in the winter. I have NEVER seen snow in Phoenix and it blows my mind to think that it happened here in Baghdad.

Thats about all for now. I have a couple more stories I want to tell but I'm tired and I'll just wait until tomorrow and put them in another posting. Plus theres a couple pictures I wan't to throw up for that, so I need to get those as well. Maybe give me 2 days, knowing my level of laziness on my days off! :)


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11 comments:

Lapdog Creations said...

Excellent news for Charlie!!! Will he be joining you in your home in the US?

Anonymous said...

Whew. Good to see you again. You know how us moms are....

Anonymous said...

There was snow in Mesa last year, but only for a little while. Four Peaks and the Superstitions got covered pretty good. Sure, it will snow here, but not enough to build a decent snowman or to play in for very long. Gotta go to the Rim Country for that!

Anonymous said...

I've ben reading about Charlie for a while...major Grats on bringing him home!!

As for snow in Phoenix, it has happened a few times. There's nothing stranger than waking up to a snow covered palm tree :)

Anonymous said...

Did you know you were picked up today at The Sandbox? http://gocomics.typepad.com/the_sandbox/

Please make sure to let us know when you get home, and same for Charlie. Stay well and safe.

David M said...

The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 01/23/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.

Anonymous said...

It snowed in Scottsdale one day last year but we missed it. We were up in the White Mountains stuck in threefeet of sonw up there and snowed in.

ANYWAY - the real reason II came here was to announce this:

Your site has won a Blog of the Day Award (BOTDA)

Award Code

Thank you,

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Mikey said...

Surfed in from Blog of the Day, got to say THANK YOU for serving our country and for saving Charlie. What a great story!
We can't wait for you to get back to AZ, and we want to see both you and Charlie!
Keep us posted and know we're thinking about you.

Anonymous said...

LOL! Well I guess there's a few folks that will have to fulfill promises they made if "Hell freezes over." There's been some videos of the snow there on the net. The weather here in N.M.'s been pretty similar. Man that's some great news about Charlie!! He was sure lucky to have hooked up with you guys. Keep on truckin' , Solo

membrain said...

That's really good news about Charlie. Thanks again for everything.

Esther said...

Wow! Thanks for all that you do and for taking the time to save a dog on top of all of it. :)