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Saturday, February 12, 2005
Slippers and Climbing Shoes
We are now stationed in a city environment, versus the agrarian region we were in down south. It’s quite a change and there is little space between our little fire base and the neighbor’s homes. Things in general are much more congested and just city-like, which is a tough adjustment for some of these Idaho boys who are studs at driving off-road but rookies when it comes to city driving (once again, my Boston driving skills will come in handy).
The area is much more metropolitan and there are actual stores, hotels, and other discernable businesses. Down south it seemed like the only merchants were guys on the side of the road selling gasoline from big plastic jugs, farmer stands, and these shanty-sort of roadside ‘convenience stores’ that stocked pop, cigarettes, and that’s about it.
One of the benefits of a more ‘metro’ environment is that we can occasionally order take-out food from the interpreters. The other day we had big $3 burgers (no cheese, but great local bread and some fresh veggies). Unfortunately they, uh… didn’t agree with our stomachs too much. The 25th ID guys that we replaced said that the first time you eat local food you have troubles so it’s best to just get it over with. We also order pizzas on occasion, not to mention twice weekly live rabbits or chickens for Mitch (the golden eagle) to eat.
Speaking of Mitch, I emailed the folks at Idaho’s Birds of Prey center to see if we can get more info on how to better care for Mitch.
Since we’re now up north, most of the city is Kurdish (so much so that a local TV station’s call sign is apparently ‘KURD’ but also with two neighborhoods of Arabs and Turkmen) and they are much happier to see us than the folks down south, who just apparently viewed us with a sort of distant indifference. We would wave to people passing by the base down south and occasionally get a wave or two. Here, people wave at us, even just passing by the base they honk, smile and wave (or give a big ‘thumbs up’) without provocation.
And this is Mesopotamia. That was sort of brought home the other night as we patrolled around this ancient looking castle. We’ve been told that it’s The Citadel (as in THE Citadel) and is where Daniel is buried… as in THE Daniel… like the first one… like from the Bible. Crazy.
And in much more mundane news, the last conex of our gear finally caught up with us. This was primarily comfort items that we couldn’t have with us down south, since our space was so limited. Most guys were overjoyed to pull out sheets and immediately put them on their bunks, swearing to never again use their sleeping bags. Me, I was psyched to whip out some treaded slippers that my dear wife (it’s still fun to just say ‘wife’) got for me for Christmas one year. I’ve been using them like crazy already and they’re just so much more convenient (and obviously comfortable) than combat boots for around our quarters.
Several of us were also happy to pull out rock climbing gear. Thanks to some contacts of mine at climbing companies Metolius and Nicros and Corporal Wing, and a former Marine and general all-around contractor guy, we’re going to build us a big ole’ climbing wall on the fire base. Too cool!
The area is much more metropolitan and there are actual stores, hotels, and other discernable businesses. Down south it seemed like the only merchants were guys on the side of the road selling gasoline from big plastic jugs, farmer stands, and these shanty-sort of roadside ‘convenience stores’ that stocked pop, cigarettes, and that’s about it.
One of the benefits of a more ‘metro’ environment is that we can occasionally order take-out food from the interpreters. The other day we had big $3 burgers (no cheese, but great local bread and some fresh veggies). Unfortunately they, uh… didn’t agree with our stomachs too much. The 25th ID guys that we replaced said that the first time you eat local food you have troubles so it’s best to just get it over with. We also order pizzas on occasion, not to mention twice weekly live rabbits or chickens for Mitch (the golden eagle) to eat.
Speaking of Mitch, I emailed the folks at Idaho’s Birds of Prey center to see if we can get more info on how to better care for Mitch.
Since we’re now up north, most of the city is Kurdish (so much so that a local TV station’s call sign is apparently ‘KURD’ but also with two neighborhoods of Arabs and Turkmen) and they are much happier to see us than the folks down south, who just apparently viewed us with a sort of distant indifference. We would wave to people passing by the base down south and occasionally get a wave or two. Here, people wave at us, even just passing by the base they honk, smile and wave (or give a big ‘thumbs up’) without provocation.
And this is Mesopotamia. That was sort of brought home the other night as we patrolled around this ancient looking castle. We’ve been told that it’s The Citadel (as in THE Citadel) and is where Daniel is buried… as in THE Daniel… like the first one… like from the Bible. Crazy.
And in much more mundane news, the last conex of our gear finally caught up with us. This was primarily comfort items that we couldn’t have with us down south, since our space was so limited. Most guys were overjoyed to pull out sheets and immediately put them on their bunks, swearing to never again use their sleeping bags. Me, I was psyched to whip out some treaded slippers that my dear wife (it’s still fun to just say ‘wife’) got for me for Christmas one year. I’ve been using them like crazy already and they’re just so much more convenient (and obviously comfortable) than combat boots for around our quarters.
Several of us were also happy to pull out rock climbing gear. Thanks to some contacts of mine at climbing companies Metolius and Nicros and Corporal Wing, and a former Marine and general all-around contractor guy, we’re going to build us a big ole’ climbing wall on the fire base. Too cool!
Posted by: Unknown / 1:28 PM 
