Monday, August 13, 2007

Nearing Ninety Days in Country

Well, it is about time I started writing this again. Of course, I am looking over my shoulder to make sure no one is watching since blogging is frowned upon. But, I don't release operational stuff and I hide names so I feel that I am doing no harm; just telling my story.
We have been here at our cell block, er, base for about 90 days. It has been quite a quarter I will tell you. So far to date, we have received 77 rockets here and 7 at our other little cabin in the woods. I will call it the Copper. The rockets come at random times and usually miss our little prison yard, but every once in a while they hit the sweet spot that sends us scurrying for some concrete. Even the bad guys hate our food, so they put one through our dining facility not long ago...no big loss there. (Hehe) The Copper just got up and running, so I guess they figured they would test us and our concrete and threw some that way as well.
The Copper is up on a little mountain not far from here, but right smack on the wrap around porch of the bad guys house. They don't like it very much, so they try everything they can to evict us...it isn't working. We have had a few surprises for us buried in the road as of late. Both got us, but only a little. It smacked one of our cars and one of the local indig cars. Sadly, one of the locals won't be going home for dinner. But we have put some protective measures out to make sure it doesn't keep happening. But, that's life at the Copper, although I haven't spent much time there.
Prior to the Copper being built, we busied ourselves with driving around in hopes of finding the man; you know, UBL. He's out there someplace. We have lots of projects to keep us busy and the time goes by pretty quickly. You look down at your watch and it is lunchtime and then you get a break and look down again and it is August. Surprisingly, it hasn't been terribly hot yet. Oh, it has had its days. But not a consistent heat wave that makes you want to stand inside the air conditioner. We have been lucky with Mother Nature. She must like us.
The boys are doing fine. Frederica, the Head and Vo-Vo have all been busy as ever. They keep the engines running and the tires worn out from the rocks and the desert. They collectively have put probably close to 10,000 miles on the cars. They have done a lot of good things here. Their boys are ready at a moments notice for anything. They are "used" to this, I guess. I have been with them a few times when the bad guys decided we were to close too their turf. I have my Doc, my main shooter and 2 empty seats in the back that I usually carry the big guns on. Sometimes I just grab a random guy, tell him to get dressed and throw him to the wolves. It happened not long ago, and one of my "never leaves the yard" guys got the surprise of his life when metal started flying through the air. He didn't really care for it much thereafter. But, he is a sport and just smiles now when I ask if he is ready.
The terra firma here is unbelievable. We went out a few days ago to meet the gang from the other neighborhood East of us. It was supposed to be a nice tea and smiles meeting until we found out that the road stopped and we had to walk there. So, we stopped. First, we aren't allowed to play in that neighborhood. Second, the sidewalk was about 9,000 feet up and wasn't kept up very nice. Third, we were pretty sure we were going to run into one of the neighborhood gang of hooligans and decided that maybe we would use the phone instead to say our hello's. On the way back down, my left front tire decided it was tired of being upright and just rolled on underneath the car; sideways. Now, imagine you are having a scary nightmare of being super close to the edge of a huge cliff. Add my car in its current "I don't want to play anymore" mode and about 10 of us with you on the cliff. That is where 'ole number 7 decided to quit. Not good. So, one of my super mechanical smart guys decides he can fix it. Of course, he basically had a monkey wrench, Popsicle stick and a big rock. Shazam! 5 hours later, I was able to be towed. He fixed it right on the spot. Amazing! I get ribbed pretty often since I received my car here from a blind guy. It has had all sort of problems. Funny thing is when the jokes start flying, along with a large string of expletives directed towards me, someone always breaks down with me. It's just good luck for me I guess.
So, what now? I guess we will just have to keep on keepin' on. Not much else you can do. We have just over a year left to be here. Hopefully, it will start snowing tomorrow and continue well into July of next year. I'm talking Buffalo-type snow. Not the animal, but the city. That is exactly what we need. We always joke about why we have to fight wars in countries like this. Why can't we invade the Bahamas or Fiji. Someplace we can all enjoy.
Lastly, I want to look skyward and tell Mike and his boys not to worry about anything. We are pretty sure we got the guy. Keep looking out for us and we will keep looking out for those that you left behind. We won't forget you!