Missions...

Rachel says that I am irritable lately...I think that it is just this specific mission...We are just as busy as ever and as we get closer to returning there is a sense of complacency that rises along with the urgency to not be complacent..uneasiness about what's next, what didn't we plan for and the anticipation. It is this annoying cautious vibe...We have all of these post-deployment assessments/hoops to clear and the endless checklists and redundant admin issues. The left hand doesn't know what the right is doing, in this case it is admin section and operations... The missions seem to be longer for me some how? Like my gear has gotten heavier or something. I have become impervious to motion-sickness thanks to these jerkish hot shot show-off blackhawk pilots wanting to "...make the guy in back (me) puke". It is probably 30-40 degrees cooler now than summer too? So the locals are all bundled up when we are out circulating and it is nerve wracking seeing all these bulky clothes, people naturally keep their hands in their pockets...blah blah...I imagine that that all makes perfectly NO sense to you but I can tell you about it all once we return if you want. Just ask me what happened on Dec 5 2009.

I was down South over the marshes recently and saw something that Rachel's Granddad and I talked about during mid-tour leave, oil refineries. When I asked about these big fires out in the desert I was told that they burn off all the natural gas here rather than let the foreign oil companies use it. If that is true, what a waste. I seem to remember her Granddad telling me they burn some part of it as a safety/release valve, but here they had a fire going up on top of the tower and then out over the wells too.

We have been here for nearly a year and I have been to the IZ, international zone, a hundred times but I finally got a photo under the Saddam Sabers. So I can check that off of my "life-list", JK.

Rachel has been studying children's education. Several of our friends back home have recently had a baby or are in the last tri-mester and it has got Rachel pre-nesting HARD. We have a strategy, a plan that I am trying my level best to abide by. We agreed that she should get her nursing degree out of the way before we proceed with the piglet(s). She is a rational, civilized person about all of this until we get a photo or an ultrasound of some happy, sad, screaming, smiling, sleeping pre-adult. THEN Rachel becomes a cooing, treacherous, plotting, compromising, pre-nesting, baby needful, maternal creature...I told her that we can get a cat, dog, goat, fish, monkey...pet to appease the craving but please, SOMEBODY, talk some rational sense into her or you may find yourself shopping for baby-shower gifts sooner than you'd expect or desire. HA!

I got a letter from my Mom, living up just inside the artic circle at minus 35, who thinks the internet is a passing fad and too much of a hassle. Like not being able to salt the icy roads because the bears and moose come out to quench their salt cravings isn't...Like having to tote a highpowered rifle around to fend of bear, wolf and wayward moose isn't a hassle or having to bundle up in several layers of clothing so you don't FREEZE to DEATH walking across the street to work isn't a hassle...or having to "import" everyday necessities like hygiene items and food, along intermittant internet and phone service. I think that we have it better here in Iraqistan sometimes, I have never shot a wolf that was scavenging in our dumpster here. She is amazing to me. She cracks me up. I love her.

Anyway, we hope to see and chat with you all soon, MIKE