nbperp

So, yeah, I guess it's over

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:21:53 GMT

From the time I woke up Sunday until the time I got into my house, I was on the go for about 62 hours. While I was supposed to have a nice place midway where I could sleep in a bed, take a shower, feel like a person, that was not available. So I spent all that time in the same set of clothes, feeling more and more tired.

I did get some sleep on the plane from Qatar to Ireland. This was a plane with about 250 seats and only 100+ people to sit in them. So I got a row of 3 seats all to myself. I curled up as small as I could and slept across all 3 of them. Of course, that's by no means stretching out, so when I woke up my legs were all sore from having not moved.

In Ireland there was a nice spreads put out by the ambassador there - Orange Juice and home made cookies and cake. Some of the kids of the local military were there to hand things out. It was very nice. We staying there for just over an horu and then we were back in the air. Theplane landed in Bangor, Maine with its final destination intended to be Washington State. By previous arrangement, when the guys disembarked for refueling, I said my thanks and goodbyes and went to the commercial terminal.

The conversation with the Delta counterperson was amusing. It must have been early in her day because it took her a few minutes to piece together all the uniforms she saw walkig about and me explaining to her that I needed a one-way ticket to Washington DC and the sooner it got in, the happier I'd be. She kept asking me how I planned on getting home, and I kept telling her that going to DC was going home.

My folks were at the airport to pick me up, which was great. Relearning that DC traffic sucks was not so great, but what can you do. The flight lands when it lands, you can't really control that by too much. In the car was my first opportunity - in 60+ hours - to take my showes off and rub my feet a bit. Hoo boy was the stench huge.

Later that night I called Ray and the kids (who are all in Wisconsin for Thanksgiving). They were ecstatic to hear that I was home. Saturday I'll head over to the airport myself to pick them up and we'll have a wonderful reunion, I'm quite sure.

Today, I get to go and play Heroclix for the first time in months. I can't remember the last time I went this long without playing. But I got me lots of new boosters (yeah, Hammer of Thor is released) and the day all to myself.

Tomorrow, I'll clean the house up a bit so that everything is spic-and-span for Rachel's return. No doubt we'll go out for some dinner and then spend Sunday just enjoying everyone's company.

On the road again!

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:00:40 GMT

Yes I'm so glad to be on the road again!!!!

Sort of.

Wave 1 left Saturday. They were originally scheduled to leave Friday, but despite our coordinator using their own web application to book the travel, that said booking utilized a list of flights supplied by the travel organization, somewhere a miscommunication took place and they never ordered a plane for that date. BARNEY took the news real well.

By this time, Wave 2's travel had been set up as well - we were scheduled to leave Sunday. Now, there were three of us scheduled for Wave 2. Two of them took it on themselves to decide that their work was as done as it needed to be and personally reached out to the travel organization and switched their reservation to Saturday's flight to go out with Wave 1. GILLIGAN was thrilled. He didn't force anyone to change their plans, but it was obvious that he was annoyed.

For me, I was annoyed because it meant that instead of traveling with 2 other people, I'd be traveling alone. I'm the only one left in Wave 2. But, as in all things on this trip, when GILLIGAN says "you gotta go do this", that's what I go and do.

THE PLAN: Get picked up around midnight to be taken to check-in. It is usually about 4 hours between check in and the plane leaving. I would then fly to Qatar (about 4 hours) where I would be met by a guy who works for the travel organization in this area. They would facilitate me emigrating into Qatar, either arrange military travel back home for me (unlikely) or take me to a regular travel agency where I'd be able to buy a commercial ticket home (reimbursable expense). Qatar Air has a daily flight out of here, so it would very l ikely be no more than a day in Qatar and I'd land at the airport of my choice (and there is a direct flight to Dulles, so how easy is that).

THE PLAN IN MOTION: Pick up was on time, though rain had started to come down. The wait time in the terminal was less than expected but still, we took off about 4 hours after pick up, so no problems there. Flight time was as expected, if not a little early. The travel guy was there to meet me (along with 4 or 5 others from my flight, people I had never met before). And then... things took a turn.

My ID card for this adventure says on it that I am a Civilian and that I am affiliated with the DOD. That should allow me to emigrate into Qatar without a visa. In fact, going from Indiana to Alaska, we spent a day here in Qatar and I emigrated just fine on my ID and orders. Not this time. They refused to let me in without a visa, claiming I was a contractor. I showed them my official passport and my real-jobs credentials to illustrate that I am NOT a contractor, that I'm assigned to DOD for the TDY (as stated in my orders). No dice - I'm not oging to be allowed into the country.

So now, I'm in the process of being deported. It's not as bad as it sounds. Basically it means I'm restricted to the terminal. The military guys are working to get me on a plane home, but it is not commercial, it is not necessarily any particular time, and it is a constant game of "we think it'll happen at this time..."

On the plus side, everyone is very nice/polite. This is a problem that has happened many times in the past, so they are set up for it. For food, there is a checklist to fill out and someone will go and get me my meals For internet, there's wifi. Other than that, it's waiting. And waiting.

My next shot at a way home leaves in about 6 hours. That plane goes to Ireland and then to Maine. Once I get to Maine, I'm on my own, but I see that there are lots of flights in the afternoon/evening to get me to BWI. If this flight lines up, I may be back in Maryland late Tuesday night.

Interestingly, there is a flight that leaves here about 3 hours earlier. It goes to Dover, Delaware through Germany. For a while, I was trying to get on that flight and in fact had arranged for that to happen. Leaving earlier and getting closer to home, you'd think that would be a good thing, right? Not when you learn that the Germany layover is 24 hours! So following that path could have been worse. Fortunately, I was able to rearrange to get back on the Maine flight.

That's where things are now. 360 minutes in which anything can change. Again.

For those keeping track, I woke up this morning around 8:30 AM Zulu time. I stayed awake for about 20 hours until I was on the plane leaving Alaska. I got about 3 hours of sleep there. So I'm now running on 3 hrs sleep out of about 33. At a minimum, I'm looking at that being 3 out of about 40 hours. I tried napping here on the benches, but that didn't really work.

Meanwhile, I've been completely incapable of reaching out to GILLIGAN to let him know what's happened with me. There's a phone here, but it doesn't seem to be able to connect to the phone back at the base. I'll be able to send an email to him once I get back to work, but that's nearly a week from now. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure something out before then.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:17:00 GMT

My workload is in a bit of a lull just now, because folks are winding up their stuff. Once their reports and edits are done, I'll need to write some programs, import the stuff into the database, and then execute some new reports for the final report. My time here is no longer being measured in months or even weeks.

We were told to pack our necessities into out 36-hour bag. "Tht's the stuff that you're going to keep with you the rest of the trip." we were told. Everything else got packed into one of two packages. The first is a package of stuff that I don't really need - mostly gear that I'll be giving back to the organization that supplied it. That package got put on a pallete that will get to North Carolina sometime before January, which is when I'll be there for a follow up series of meetings for the final report. One of the days there we will return our gear, so it's in the perfect place.

The second package is made up of stuff that's mine, that I don't need, and I shipped that home. To be specific, I actually sent it to my parents house since I'm not 100% sure if it may arrive while Rachel and the kids are out of town.

Sitting on my top bunk is now 3 sets of clothes, my essentials (laptop, zune), and anything I want traveling WITH me (e.g., gifts).

The only possible issue is my sleeping bag and sleep roll. Coming out here, I had a really big bag that the sleeping bag fit in, so my bed roll got strapped to the bottom of my 36-hour bag. That big bag is the one I sent off to the pallete. So I'm hoping that I can wrap the sleeping bag around the bed roll and that can be strapped to the bottom of the 36-hour bag. If not, then I'll have to choose one or the other, and I'l lhave to choose the sleeping bag since it has to be returned. Still, I'm hopeful I can get both home.

That's a big box

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:46:45 GMT

I bought a trunk today - it's a plastic trunk that is sold en masse at the local shops. We've been told to get our belongings down to what we can carry in our standard 36-hour bag. Just so I'm clear - I still don't have a date for when I'm leaving. As I've stated in numerous entries, it is event driven and wave 1 has not left yet.

Still, to follow orders, I made a list of the minimum things I needed along with the list of things that I didn't want away fro mmy person. So while I'd be willing to be without my laptop for a couple of weeks, I'm not willing for it to travel by US Mail. So it stays. Nintendo, Zune, etc. all the same thing. Though I'm not willing to be without my Zune - it's how I go to sleep at night now, watching Buffy till I'm too tired to move.

Speaking of Buffy, I am finally FINALLY through the horrible season four. The year of Riley was just so painful. I almost skipped the season, but there are enough fond memories of things in there that I worked through it (notably Willow's coming around to an alternate lifestyle). I was absolutely stunned when the Season 5 opener (Buffy vs Dracula) was an episode I had never seen before. I can't understand it. I've had the DVDs for years, I've watched and talked the show with Tara and other friends and this epsiode has never come up. Ever. So I actually got to see something new. Of course, Riley is still in it, but I know he's a short-termer this season - I'll be glad when he's gone for good.

Back to packing - the original plan was to put everything into my new trunk - all of my stuff and all of my issued stuff that will need to be returned. The plan was to ship that home and then bring the returnable-gear with me on a trip to be done later. However, when all was said and done, and I had everything organized I had:

* A 36 hour bag packed relatively full with the stuff I needed to keep here.
* A trunk full of my stuff, not counting returnable gear
* A duffel bag full of stuff that is gear to be returned.

So I now need to inventory the duffel bag and get that put onto a pallete that is going back to the main camp, so it can sit there waiting for me until I can get there to return stuff. Fortunately, it is now sounding like the "back home follow up meeting" will be taking place at the location where we left from, so I can kill 2 birds with one trip.

Meanwhile, I'm hoping someone can find us a truck for tomorrow. I'm not the only one with stuff to ship home, and no one relishes the idea of dragging a 25-30 pound trunk about half a mile down the road.

Here Comes Jack Frost

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:28:39 GMT

And suddenly, it's freaking cold!

About 2-3 days ago we had rain. That was the sign that the winter weather was moving in. Thankfully, after the rain was over, we had a day of sun (though it was still a bit nippy). Most of the water evaporated off of that. So now it's cold and windy. I've got my gloves and my hat (and my Mountain Hard Wear jacket) to keep me warm, and so far, all feels okay. If it drops another 5-10 degrees, I may need to start layering up with some of the warm weather gear they issued me, but so far, it's pretty bearable.

The one area I'm not doing so well in is evening wear.

Now, possibly in the TMI category, I like to sleep au natural. Have for at least as long as I've been married to a woman who enjoys the same. I knew that was not going to fly out here. So I made sure to pack a couple of extra shorts and t-shirts to act as my sleep-wear - same thing I do when I share hotel rooms at conventions. No problem.

But now, I am actually debating in my head whether or not I'm going to go take a shower tonight. Oh, there will be hot water - there are 4 different places I know to go for a shower now and one of them will have hot water. it's not the time, I typically prefer taking showers at night - if for no other reason but because it seems like only about 10% of the population here take showers in the evening, almost everyone else takes theirs during the day-time - either when they wake up or after they finish their workout. No, for me the issue is how freaking cold am i going to be crossing camp in shorts. Upper body will be fine - I'll have a hat, I'll have gloves, I'll have one to three layers of shirt. But legs, all I'll have is shorts. I suppose I could put my pants on again after my shower. But then I own't feel as clean. *sigh* Added to the list of things I'll never take for granted again - showering steps away from my bed.

The last alternate site trip is coming up soon, but I'm not going. My database/flowcharting skills are going to be used to start prepping the final report. Or the draft of the final report. Or the input to the draft for the final report. I dunno - it's still a bit vagued up for me. That's ok. I've learned to cope without having the complete picture. I keep my zen, let my mantra flow, and only tense up slightly when it becomes apparent that I NEED to know something. Then I shift into my socratic mode, ask pointed questions to ensure I understand. This sometimes puts the person I'm talking to on the defensive, but I'm at a point now where I'm at peace with that, especially with certain individuals.

More From Yesterday

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:55:23 GMT

I must have been more tired than I thought - I actually slept until my alarm went off this morning. That's pretty unusual - I think it's happened two or three other times on this trip. Granted, my alarm is not typically set of the god-awful early hour that it is at home, but you'd think after a while, my body would adjust to sleeping past the alarm.

Yesterday was bazaar. It's the equivalent of a flea market, where they allow locals to bring their wares to sell. Like the bazaars of other places I've been, the price you are intially quoted is known as the "sucker's price". You never ever pay that price. For the most part, when I hear a number I'll either pay half price or I'll buy two of that item for that price.

I still need to get souveniers for folks and the bazaar is the most likely place that I'll get something somewhat native of the region. Yesterday I was looking for something for the wife and kids. At this point, I think I've figured out what to get for each. Unfortunately, by the time I finished walking around the place, it was close up time, so most of these purchases will wait till next week.

Now, for the most part, there are a limited number of vendor types. There are those with jewelery, those with clothes, those with wood-work, and those with electronics. There is one place I found on my way out that sold shoes. And boots. I was so excited. I found a piar that looked decent, found a pair in my size. I asked the vendor the price and he told me $65. Using my typical rule of thumb, I offered him 25. We went back and forth until we settled on $40. I can't tell y'all how delighted I am to have found a pair of boots for less than 1/3 of what the regular store tried to gouge me for.

I'll grant you that these boots are probably not "name brand" and may very well fall apart in much less time than a normal pair. I'm ok with that. All they NEED to do is last until I get home and they seem sturdy enough for that. Just in case, I'm keeping my 15 year old crappy huiking shoes so I have a fall back pair. But that pair is certainly not coming home with me.

A New Kind of Service

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:31:04 GMT

For as long as I've been out here, I've known that there have been Jewish services of some kind. Often it has been at the chapel not close to where I am. I thought that was the case here, but a random posting led my eye to the fact that services were actually being held less than half a mile from my main area. Now, no one needs to ge tantsy - I have not moved much from my long standing position. But a combination of (a) intellectual curiousity to meet the jews in the military that may show up to service, (b) what kind of service would be held and (c) something, anything, that has familiarity and "not the same old thing" is a welcome change of pace.

So I went.

The chaplain (I don't know if he's actually a rabbi) is a nice enough ortho who grew up in Maryland. He didn't know the rabbi from back home, but he knew the area. Nice enough guy who provided a service with minimal Hebrew and gave the people there a few words on what the significance of the specific prayers were. Services were relatively abbreviated (from an ortho perspective) and followed by a small dinner (which I wish I had known would be there, I ate dinner right before going).

I would type more, but this public use machine is about to reboot for it's nightly updates. So I'm off to sleep.

The Inevitable Password Change

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:36:52 GMT

Every few months one system or another tells me that I have to change my password. This is not a bad thing. In fact, anyone of you who do not change your password at least every 3 months, set up a reminder for yourself.

Since I have an extremely weirdly compartmentalized brain, I have a formula I use for passwords. So at the root of every password is the same thing. However, the password itself is different for every place that I need it. So when it comes ot be "that time" when a password expires, it's not only time to change that password, it's time to change ALL the passwords. Because I change the root and the real password at the end of the tunnel is different for each site/system I need it for.

Logging in to my regular job's network today, it prompted me to change my password. I knew that this day would come and it would come while I was on my grand adventure. But now I am in a bizarre limbo. Some of my passwords are now changed to the new standard. For the most part, I'm leaving everything to the old password so that I can catch everything up in one big sweep when I get home. But I'm instinctively putting the wrong password in systems. Not terrible, you just retype and put in the right one. But it's mentally wearing. (sigh - pooooor Norm).

Speaking of "poor", found a funny thing in my bank account this morning. Before I cam out here, I set up a new bank account. Now, with each payday, some money goes to the "save a little bit every month, you know you can" account, a standard amount goes into the "automatically pay the mortgage" account, a standard amount goes to the "Ray pays the bills from here" account and the rest goes to this new account. In this way, any overages to our normal paychecks go to this account so we don't accidentally spend anything.

The last time a paycheck hit that account was 10/30, right on time. Imagine my surprise to see a deposit in there from 11/04, just 5 days later. The amount is a weird amount too - it's more than my usual "not-on-an-adventure" check but it is less than my current checks. The depositor description is exactly the same as my normal paycheck, so I know the source is my job. But I'd like to know if this money is mine or if it is going to be pulled out at some point. In any case, I've told Ray to just leave that cash alone until we hear otherwise.

25 hour days

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:24:25 GMT

Earlier this week, my mini-team moved from day-cycle back to night-cycle. That meant one day where we finished with about 14 hours until we had to report to work again. It was great, particularly since I was stil so tired from the long long day the week before. And yet, when I went to sleep, I ended up waking up about an hour after I usually did when I was on days.

This same thing has repeated itself 3 times now - each time I wake up from sleep, it's about an hour later. I'm fully refreshed and have o problem getting through my day, but I keep worrying what happens when I've fully acclimitaed back to the night schedule. It's like my body is functioning on a 25 hour day - wake up, work, go to sleep - all wrapped up in 25 hours.

I had an interesting conversation with GILLIGAN about how, despite the fact that we've been "at work" for essentially 50+ days in a row, no one (well, most folks) do not feel that same drag you feel even at the end of a 5 day week or if your boss needs you to work a weekend. Maybe it's because it's what everyone is doing. Maybe it's because it's all you have. Maybe it's because there is no commuting or outside distactions. Whatever it is, I can definitely see/understand the appeal this has to certain kinds of people. If you want to work, earn money, and don't have issues with being apart from folks at home, this is a really really good place to work.

Now, I'm not that guy. I can't wait to get home and see friends and family.

I have to shout out ot my friends at work. They organized a package to send me here that included a wide variety of things. You guys were so creative and I really appreciate it. I've got some new puzzle books now, and Oracle magazine (which only had one article on Apex, the bastards), way more candy than I should eat (hey Kevin - how did the Halloween Witch score this year?), scarvesm and more. Much thanks to all of them and you guys are indeed on the list of things I'm looking forward to when I get home.

Autumn Days

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:26:58 GMT

So apparently even trees with caked on dust are affected by nature. As the temperature here gets cooler and cooler, the dusty little leaves are dropping like flies. 3 days ago, we walked along the main road and there was nothing on the ground but sidewalk, dust, and rocks. Yesterday, there was a carpet of leaves. What's weird is that the trees don't look all that empty. So I'm wondering if these leaves fell from the trees or if they were imported and placed on the ground. Very odd.

With November, we've been on this adventure for about 2 months, so talk of bringing it to a close has started to pop up. Rather than commit to times (that couldn't be guaranteed anyway) our tour guide has declared that there are 3 milesotnes to be reached, and that a group of us will go home with each milestone, depending on our skills and our necessity to the next milestone. The first wave has about half the group in it, the second wave has 2 or 3 people in it, and the final wave has 6 folks in it. And it looks like I'll be with the last group.

There's a difference between "smart" and "informed". I am fully well versed in how smart I am. I know a lot of things and I have a keen analytical mind. Yes, that's ego, but I dare say it's not something many folks will disagree with. Any trepidation I've had about coming out here has instead been more about information. All other members of this group have so much more information about how things work out here, what the different agencies are responsible for and can do for each other and how they interact. These are HUGE assets when you are interviewing someone about their process, because you have a baseline of "SHOULD" to map up against "REALITY". Supposedly, I'm an asset in that I'm not "colored" by a pre-existing opinion, but in truth, I feel like that has not been such a great asset. It means that when someone talks about sending stuff to ABC, I'm wondering why and when I ask, I look like an uninformed moron. I get the answer, but that colors the interviewees opinion of me for my next question (which might very well be from an area I understand).

So in order to feel like I am pulling my weight, I've gone out of my way to apply the skills I'm really good at. I understand data, I can build databases, I can manipulate relatively unstructured data into structured data, and I can generate queries/reports for any management level. I've facilitated a standard spreadsheet for people to use to annotate each of their interviews. I've put together an Access database (ugh, yes - I had to use Access) to import and collate that data. I've written some tools so that the report-writers can get overviews of the reports, comment, and edit the data.

All of which puts me into wave 3. Here till the end. In a way, it's not that bad. The difference between that and wave 2 is probably a matter of less than a week. Plus, the way home through wave 3 handles a fair amount of the administrative crap as well (i.e., returning the gear I was issued). Whereas if I went home through wave 1 or 2, I'd need to schedule another trip for the return of gear.

Speaking of another trip...

It's always been known that there is a report due out of this assignment to the sponsors. It's also been known that the same group out here is supposed to get together for that. What I didn't realize is that the plan is for that meeting to be in mid-to-late-December. Not at all sure how that's going to play at work, but I guess we'll see.

Killing time - the washer is running

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:35:47 GMT

3 days have gone by, so it must be laundry day again. It's not that I need to do laundry - I have plenty of clothes and pants. But there are the shirts I like to wear and then there are the ones I can wear. Pants aren't much in the way of selection - I have khaki, khaki, hunter green, and khaki. And I usually save the hunter greens for flying (they are the warmest).

I had a conference call with some people for Heroclix Friday night, so in order to make it I had to (1) get through a regular work day, (2) take a brief nap (4 hours), (3) get up for the call, (4) choose between a 2 hour nap or just staying up a little longer so that I could (5) work another long day. I opted not to take the nap, figuring it would be a bunch of maneuvers to risk oversleeping and not getting really rested anyway. Besides, my Sunday schedule was light, so I knew if I could power through Saturday, I'd be able to make a case to sleep a little later Sunday.

Last night I slept for about 9 hours and I'll be damned if I didn't enjoy every single one. I went to sleep kind of going through my normal routine. I booted up the laptop to play some chess. Decided naaahh - I'll play chess tomorrow. I took out my Cross Sums mag to do a puzzle. there was one half done, so it got knocked out a little faster. Lay down and turned on some Buffy, got about 11 minutes into it and decided, hey - I'm a little sleepy. Off with the TV. Next thing I remember is my alarm going off. But rested - I haz plenty of it.

For those who don't follow <a href="http://malkatsheva.livejournal.com>my wife's blog</a> too, the Maxda started acting up on her. This might put us in a position to take advantage of a deal out here that I wasn't thinking we would need. Apparently, along with soft drinks, Pizza Hut, and magazines, they also have car sales of Ford, Mercury, and Plymouths. You buy it out here, they have (apparently) huge discounts and they will deliver it (free) to the distributor of your choice. How awesome is that? So I've told her that while I'm not in the mood to necessarily buy a new car, if the problem with the minivan leads her to believe that now is the right time to start shopping new car, it may make sense to buy now while I'm out here (though I am fairly certain there are no 0% financing deals here, I'm confident then cost savings more than makes up for it). What I wonder is if she does go for a new car if she's going to stay minivan or go smaller - station wagon or even a sedan. The kids are plenty old enough that we don't need the ease of access the minivan gives you for handling small children. Who knows? In other news, rumors abound regarding going home. Some folks are saying we're going to be leaving in a few weeks. Some folks are saying that we'll be here a month past that. Some say we're going to split up, with some leaving soon and others leaving a month later. All in all, it amounts to a hill of beans. What I've noticed is that I've come to a very peaceful place with how life goes. If you ever wanted to see/learn just how "not-in-control" you really are, just spend some time on an adventure like this. Nothing is in my control. I go where I'm told, I eat from a specific selection, I sleep when I'm told, etc. For some folks, it is incredibly stressful. BARNEY would like nothing more than for this to be over so he can get back home and "control" his life. I explained that he doesn't really control his life. He has more options when he's back home, but he still needs to go to work, he still needs to deal with his family, etc. No one is free. You have to do the things you have to do. The ticket to happiness is accepting that, doing what you got to do, and making the most of the free time your taskmaster (whatever form it takes) gives you. One thing this trip has taught me is just how much I miss/need Rachel and the kids. I've never been away from the kids this long and the last time Rachel and I were apart this length of time it was before we were married. But since we've met, this is easily the longest we've ever been apart. I'm really glad that one of the opportunities that came along with this adventure was to sell my half of the mail-order business to my buddy/partner Jon. I don't know what form this newfound fondness for closeness will take, but I'm glad I won't have that many distractions on my time outside of work. Anything else I'm involved in, I want to find a way for them to be involved too. Anything that they are involved in, I want to find a way to be involved. (Well, except for some of that hippy-dippy New Age stuff Rachel loves :))

Ungracious Husband

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:43:22 GMT

In my last post I neglected to shout out to my beautiful bride who was so nice as to send me a care package. I've got Jerky, South Beach Snack Bars, 2 new books and a couple of packages of peanut M&Ms now. The M&Ms are one of the first snack foods I've had in almost 8 weeks. WOW - the sugar was so so sweet. I wouldn't say I've "lost my taste" for these, but I am definitely going to wait a while before I eat the second pack. I've got enough SB Bars to last me 2-3 weeks if I eat one a day, so I'm using them as my after-dinner treat.

The books are not quite just-in-time, but I am in the middle of the last book. I've been greatly enjoying this series, so the next 2 books inthe cycle are a great thing to have on hand. I suspect that I'll get through at least one of these before I come home and get significantly through the second one (assuming I don't finish both).

Best of all were letters. Rachel wrote me a lovely note that is none of your business, thank you. But Anna wrote me a note as well and it was AWESOME. She is such a good story-teller and she decorates her note with art all over it, all relevant to the story she tells. I showed her note to everyone, and all were impressed what my 10-year-old could do. So he doesn't get in trouble, I will point out that Jack has sent me email instead of writing me a note and that's ok.

So, my dear Ray - thank you ever so much - your package made my day (and will for many days).

Weather Changes

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:40:42 GMT

I got to learn what rain in this place is like. Fortunately, I was not caught in it, as reports from people who were indicated that it was quite a downpour. When I went to bed at night there was some slight drizzling and by morning it was over.

But the smell. Horrendous. One guy turns to me and says "I don't mind the rain, but why does it have to smell like ass?" I replied that the smell was not that unusual for our camp. He agreed, but I had to agree that the smell of ass was particularly pungent this morning.

Despite the rain, walking down the main road, looking at the trees, you can STILL see more dust than leaves on the branches. It's weird, interesting, and depressing all at once.

In other weather updates, winter is definitely settling in around here. The nights and mornings are significantly cooler (and I remain oh-so-greatful to my wonderful wife for purchasing my Mountain Hard Ware jacket. It is nice and cozy and I now bring it with me anywhere. This morning, while walking to an interview, we noticed that the mountains all had snow sprinkled upon them. We are fotunately still about a thousand feet below them, so no snow for us (yet). By early afternoon, all the snow was gone, though. So it's weird temperature swings up there as well.

The Wrong Way to Diet

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:10:50 GMT

A group of us left this evening to go have dinner. We got turned away about halfway there by a Marine who informed us that the D-Fac (Dining Facility) was closed. In fact, all of the D-Facs on the base were closed. Apparently, there was a concern about contaiminated water. Our best guess is that whatever truck delivered today's "potable" water for the D-Facs to cook with made a huge error (either when they loaded or unloaded). While it's weird eating a bowl of cereal and a small packet of jerky for dinner, I can't say how much happier I am eating this than the poor schmucks who went to dinner about an hour before I did - they got into the D-Fac and were puzzled why they got unceremoniously thrown out. Poor saps.

In the meantime, today is also an historic day. Today I am able to comfortably wear my belt on its final notch. I plan on celebrating by gorging myself on Pizza Hut and cookies. Nah, I'm just kidding. One of the things I've gotten a bit of control around here is "rewarding" myself with food. It's not because of limited options. There are cookies, cake, pizza, tons of stuff that are yummy to eat that would have kept my weight higher than it is now (I'm certain I'd lose weight anyway being here just through stress and all the walking you have to do). So far, I can control myself simply by saying "Yes, I can have a cookie. I can have it - but I'm not going to."

If you must know, it does hurt to reach behind me to pat myself on the back like this.

Whatta ya know - a post

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:32:12 GMT

So things are pretty much same same here. They talk about life being like "Groundhog Day" (a movie starring Bill Murry for the pop-culturally impaired) and it's very true. You get up, you go and do the things you gotta do, you go to bed. There's no weekend to break things up. There's no social events or the like to look forward to.

There is the Excel spreadsheet with dates that I open every morning. On it, I've got a counter that is counting the number of days since we have started this adventure, it had a countdown to day 43 (which is when post-diff pay kicks in), it has a countdown to the 2/3 mark and to the final date (that I think we'll hit - it's not a hard date). My morning ritual is to check that sheet, fill in my spreadsheet for the last day's hours (my timesheet is significantly more complex than it is back home), and check e-mail. After that, I'll do any database reports, queries, or programming that came up yesterday (these requirements usually come to me in the evening roll-up meeting).

My day gets different in the interview cycle. I talk to different people, talk about different things, so there is a degree to which it is different. On the other hand, at this point, many of the processes are the same and we're not learning anything all that new, so it IS Groundhog Day in that respect.

The big thing that broke up today was that it was laundry day. Typically, every 4-5 days I'll do laundry. Unlike my original location, this place does not have a service. Instead, it's a room with 40-odd washers and dryers. You just take a machine, throw in some soap (available free) and let it run. You are very motivated to get there in time to change over to a dryer because someone waiting for your machine IS going to take it as soon as they can. Same thing with the dryer.

The dryers here are interesting (and I may have mentioned this before). I basically set the dryer to "maximum time" which should be about an hour. I will come back at the hour mark and check the laundry. It is always consistently dry and nice and warm. So I'll take everything out and start to fold and fold. Eventually, I'll come across one sock - ONE SOCK - which is soaking wet. Everything else is dry. Except one sock. I've done laundry here 4 or 5 times at this point and it has happened every single time! It is so strange.

My boots are starting to show signs of their age. These hiking boots were purchased over 15 years ago when Rachel and I were joining her family for a trip to the California mountains. I've used them on-and-off since then on the oh-so-rare occassion that I've ever needed boots of some kind. To that end, it shouldn't be all that surprising that there are certain areas of the shoes that are showing signs of age/wear. I checked the local stores (there were 2) to see if I could find another pair to get me through the last month or so and the prices are in the "are you freaking kidding me?!?!" range. At least, that's my opinion. I'm told by others that as shoes go, it's a normal price for that brand, maybe even cheaper. Again, emphasis on "for that brand". But there ain't no way in hay-ell that I'm paying 160 bucks (OR MORE) for a pair of hiking shoes. No way, no how. I'll just take it and add it to my list of things that EVERYONE ELSE HERE (military, civilian, and even those who work for my organization) was issued FOR FREE that I didn't get. More and more, I'm sure that one of the key items going into my final report to the folks who sent me here is the fact that I got treated "like every other employee sent overseas" except for gear. Every other organization bites the bullet and equips their folks, including my organization. But because I went through a different section - one that has no experience sending folks overseas - I came out here using my own nickel for gear.

Bleh. I hate that last paragraph. I hate the resentment that is clearly inside me about this whole aspect of my trip. It's not like I'm being left in poverty because of this. And I knew enough about the incoming monies that I could have easily have purchased that stuff for myself and not sneezed in the long run. But I'm too cheap to treat myself to that kind of stuff.

Last Call For Friends

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:07:18 GMT

This is the last time I will issue this reminder. If you are enjoying reading this blog and are wondering what happened to many of the entries you saw before, I have activated a number of privacy securities. At this point, everyone who I have friended is able to see all of my private entries - so friend up!

Note - please don't assume I'll know who you are from your screen name (unless it's a really obvious screen name) - I won't add random people to my friend's list - I'll need to know who you are. :)

A Noisy Day

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:50:06 GMT

We had a follow up interview today and other than that, it was all about the individual teams briefing each other on previous interviews. The fact that I am awake now is a testament to the power of caffeine. I'm hopeful that it's not too much in my system, since I need to go to sleep soon.

Most of my time here, I live on GMT. That means I spend most of my time living in the dark - my wake up time is around noon local. But starting Monday, the people I need to meet with all live on the normal day. So tonight, I am going to bed early so that (hopefully) I wake up at least 2 hours early. If I somehow wake up refreshed 4 hours early, then I'll have completely converted over to the new schedule. But most likely, I'll lay in bed, watch a couple of episodes of Buffy and pass out.

For Buffy fans - watching from the beginning has been great. I'm in the middle of season 3, which is probably my favorite season. It's iffy for whether or not I'll actually get through the whole series before leaving here, but that's something I can live with.

My Fascination with Bathrooms Continues

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:29:36 GMT

OK, here at alternate site #2, I think I may have mentioned how dusty it is. Seriously. Dust everywhere. So how do the restrooms hold up?

They're dusty, of course.

OK, the showers are actually pretty good. Obviously, there is no potable water, but the shower tent has 2 rows of showers with (a) decent water pressure (b) an actual shower nozzle instead of a pipe that leaks and (c) hot water as a common occurence. Between the tent entrance and the showers themselves is a grand hall with 2 rows of sinks (not potable water - do not drink) and tables. So there are no cubbies for changing, but it's fairly airy. Of course, there is dust all over the floor, so once you leave the shower (and the washed off dust that has accumulated there) you are walking (in your shower shoes) on top of dust. Your challenge now is to (1) dry off then (2) take your feet out of your shower shoes while placing them down on top of same then (3) get dressed - carefully balancing yourself on one foot (on a shower shoe) and placing that foot down on the other shower shoe and then repeat for the other side and then repeat both sides again as you put your pants on. Failure in any of the above results in dirty feet.

Bathrooms are a bit more interesting. On the plus side, there is generally not a general smell of poop all over. As you get closer to the poop trailers , it gets a little riper, but you come to expect that. Inside, you have to picture a hall about 20 feet long and about 8 feet wide. Jutting out about a foot and half on the right side of the back half of the trailer is a troth. Like a giant sink sticking out of the wall. It's a urinal for 4, basically. Doesn't sound so bad until you consider that on the left side of the wall - running the entire length of the left - are the sitting toilets. Those take up about 5 feet of space. So there is about a yard of "wiggle room" to navigate up and down this hall. Do you move to the end of the hall to minimize the number of people who walk by you while you stand there pissing? Or do yo ustay up close so that you can get the hell out of there sooner? These are tough decisions and often you don't have a lot of time to make them.

I swear I shall never take a private bathroom for granted ever again.

Outback Steakhouse

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:50:14 GMT

Outback made a special delivery to Alternate Site #2 today. Thank goodness "steak" is well within my eating plan. To my credit, all of the other goodies that I could have partaken from were avoided through sheer willpower. I'm talking bloomin' onion, a yummy pasta dish, cheesecake and key lime pie. (sigh) One more belt loop and I'll start allowing myself one dessert per week. But I'm not there yet, but I can feel it getting close.

Weather today - dusty with a high of dust cloud. It's craptastic.

Today had 2 meetings that were so boring that I was nodding off. At the end of the day, when the team does its wrap-ups, we go through our notes together and build the outline of our deliverable. I could not remember taking nearly any of these notes and was stunned by the one that said "Product has trouble with butterflies on jelly." My hope is that at least I looked like I was paying attention.

Radio Silence (okay, whispering)

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:12:57 GMT

I am currently at Additional Site #2 - internet access out here is somewhat limited. Quarters are somewhat... spartan. More later, just wanted folks to know why things will be quiet here for the near future.

Alternate Site #1 - Lost Story

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 08:07:42 GMT

I almost forgot the following story about our trip to the new location.

Like I said, we arrived in the middle of the night and our billeting was assigned to a "dark hut" - which meant that people sleep in it at all hours, so you rarely ever turnt he lights on. So we arrive at the hut, wearing our full gear (i.e., armor, helmet, carrying a backpack) and at the end of a relatively long day (normal day is about 16 hours - we've been awake for going-on 22 at this point).

We get into the hut, quietly as we can, and flashlights are used to see what the place looks like, where available beds are, etc. To my view, I see a bed with a white cover over here, over there, and so on. Since I'm the first one in the room, I move to the bed furthest from the door, to make it easier on the guys behind me. Put stuff done, unload essentials as quietly as we can (shadows of 2 guys sleeping were apparent) and be done. A couple of us tried to find the 24-hour internet cafe on the other side of camp. As we walked, I talked with RALPH a bit. He mentioned that we didn't want to spend that much time at the cafe, since he still needed to make up his bed. I pointed out that my bed was already made when I got there and he told me that I was lucky, he found his sheets on the edge of the bed.

Flash forward to the next morning - apparently, in the middle of the night, after I had fallen asleep, a guy had come into the bunk and woke RALPH up as he moved his flashlight all around. According to RALPH, it was clear that someone was sleeping in his bed, though it wasn't clear to RALPH just which one of us that was. As the 4 of us on the team theorized at breakfast, BARNEY says "well, I know it wasn't my bunk - the closet was unlocked and the bed was unmade." "Unmade?" I ask, "um - what would it mean if the bed WAS made?". At which point MORGAN looks at me and deadpans "It means you're the one who stole the guy's bunk."

I felt pretty bad and didn't know what to do about it. There was little to be done as the person whose bed I stole was gone by that evening. But I'm now trying to tamp down an effort to stick me with the nickname "Cinderella" for being the guy sleeping in someone else's bed (doubly so since the bed was definitely too soft).

Sleepy Time Update

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:06:43 GMT

Internet is not as much of an option everywhere one goes. Earlier this week, I had a trip to another location - something further out than our "home base". I won't deny that I wasn't that thrilled with having to pack up a bag and go for what was going to be 2-3 days. Horror stories are told about how long it takes for air-travel to be completed. We were supposed to leave one night and we got bussed out to the airplane and as the fuel truck pulls up, they tell us "weather issues - we ain't flying tonight" and back to the base we went.

We arrived at the new location in the middle of the night. There were virtually no lights and the sky was lit up between the moon and stars. It was amazing.

Now, expectations had been set by our travel coordinator. He warned us that we were going to be so greatful to be coming back to our main base after we were done at this "small camp". So, given how little I think of our current accomodations, I was prepared for things to be even worse (and wondering just how I would cope).

Turns out, it was just the opposite. The room we stayed in was nice. Yes, it was still a "dark room" in that there were people there who worked different shifts. On the plus side, everyone was up and about in the evenings, so "going to bed" didn't have to be done in the dark - we just had to wake up fairly quietly. And the bathrooms - holy moley - they were prestine (at least compared to our main location). For one thing, the aroma of the camp was not that of a latrine. In fact, the latrines themselves were not terrible. The showers had hot water, lots of pressure, and no requirement to limit yourself to 4 minutes. Yes, the showers and sinks all still clearly stated that the water was non-potable, but you can work with that easier when you aren't choking down your breath to avoid breathing through your nose.

The cafeteria, though shabbier, had a much nicer selection of food. I've grown very used to having at least one omelet per day and this place served a nice large one. De-lish.

So we got to spend 3 days/2 nights at this place talking with people who were really happy to meet with us. I learned a lot about a lot of things that I guess you know is happening, but it is way different talking to the guys who are making these kinds of things happen. Gives me a really good feeling when we're in the middle of an interview, someone talks about something that is challenging for them, and we have enough experience with some of these things to be able to say "well, let's look into this system, see if this clears things up" - and it does.

The ride home was a little nerve-racking. The plane was scheudled to make a stop at a second camp to unload some people and reload. We landed just before sunset, in fact you could see the sun starting to drop behind some mountains. They tell us it is going to be a little bit and we can stretch our legs. While doing so, we notice them setting up a ladder under one of the propellers - turns out it has been leaking oil into the engine (or something - what do I know). They are confident it's something they can fix quickly and we'll be on our way.

The sun drops again and if I thought the stars/moon were incredible on the first base, on this air field, with even less lights around, it was even more so. I was able to easily find every constellation I know (which is sadly not nearly as many as it used to be). Meanwhile, in order for the mechanic to be able to get a proper angle on fixing the propeller, they bring a forklift up to the plane and lift the guy up to the wing. Things are very different when your job isn't "follow these guidelines to fix the plane" but "do whatever the fuck you gotta do - but fix the plane".

2 hours later and we were off. The rest of the trip was uneventful - my Zune is a real trooper in tuning me out whenever I need it to. Once we got back, we reported back to the office and we were told that 2 of our team were being sent out to another location while me and the others on my team were staying behind. No complaints here, thankyouverymuch.

Tomorrow being Sunday I'm probably going to try to get some laundry done, get ready for another trip coming up in a few days, and finish updating some of my documents.

HEADS UP: In the near future, I am going to be marking some of these entries as "friends only". It is very likely that any discussions about people/personalities of team members will be marked off in a similar way. At this time, there isn't anyone I know of reading this that I'm trying to block any of this content to - but I can see a future where there are people I know who might be reading this blog that I wouldn't want to read every detail. So, if you weant to be sure you can see everything I've writtem (or am going to write), sign up for an account and friend me.

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:12:56 GMT

Today I just felt kind of blue all day. I called home and had a few minutes to talk with Ray, and things sound like they are going okay over there.

A lot of it probably has to do with the whole waiting to go thing. We've got interviews set up, it just takes a while for travel to take place. So there's a lot of hanging around the office and getting presentations that are semi-related but not totally to what we're doing. I got an interesting tour (can't really say more) today but other than that it was humdrum ho-hum waiting.

After most of today was spent with bullshit work going on, one of the bosses talks tonight about how tomorrow we will take our data from the last place and try to generalize it, so we can identify some high level items. Why o why o why were we not doing that all week long? We've had nothing but time and crap meetings to attend - we could have easily have been working on that for the past 4 days. Instead, it's going to have to happen tomorrow. There is no way the 14 of us will agree to the categories easily. There will be discussions. Legitimate discussion, no mistake. But it's now crushed into a day instead of being able to be done in 5. Grumble!

Sorry for the delay

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:10:14 GMT

It has been a bit of trouble getting used to a new work schedule. The hours are the same, but the position of the sun is different. Things get confusing easily. There is GMT (which is what most folks in my area work off of), there is local time (which is what all of the places nearby that aren't my folks work off of), and there is east coast time (which is what I think about a lot). Throw in that we've been meeting here there and everywhere, at the presenter's convenience, of course, and our schedule has been all over the map.

Still, today's final meeting laid out the plan for how we're going to tackle the rest of our work over here. The schedule looks good, it is even possible that we finish a few days ahead of where we expect. This is a grand adventure, but I'll be delighted to come home.

It's interesting to see how different people react to this level of stress. There is one guy who just cannot stop complaining. Everything that happens just makes him miserable. He's sure his wife is going to leave him, he's sure that he's not going to get extra pay for this or that, and so on. I try to give him perspective - that what he feels is similar to what we all go through. Boy, do I hate being corrected on THAT. Apparently, since it's different for him. The fact that I don't bitch and moan about how I want to be home or how I don't know for sure how the extra pay is really going to work/happen, that makes me different. ((eye rolls))

As I stated before, this camp is a lot different. For one thing, the bathrooms make me LONG for the craptastic outhouses of the previous place. Talk about not knowing how good we had it! And apparently, for about half of the next few weeks, I'll be at places that will make me long for this place. Anyway, if descriptions of bathrooms are unappealing, you may want to skip the next few paras.

Bathrooms - the urinals and toilets are positioned well. There are no solid doors to give you privacy when you sit, instead it's a curtain you swing in front of you. The thing you need to be careful about - especially regarding a sitting situation - is to make sure that there is water available in the tank of the device you are about to sit upon. More than likely, there is either no water in the outhouse or the pipe has broken and if you flush, you're gonna get wet. Not. Pretty. (and fortunately, I was warned in advance, so it hadn't happened to me).

Showers - as in the other place, the showers are a different building from the bathrooms. Unlike the other place, the showers are about half the size. There is no water pressure at all. And there are signs instructing people to take "4 Min Showers". Your process is supposed to be (a) turn on water and get wet (b) turn off water and then lather up and (c) turn water back on and rinse. End of shower. Not refreshing in the slightest.

The biggest difference of this place over where I was is that the people here from my "home" organization are really psyched that I'm here. When I reached out and made contact, one of them came to the office I'm in, introduced himself and then took me around to meet the other folks here from our office and so on. I got to sit with him and a few other guys and interviewed them - in part for the team I'm here with but more so that I can bring something back from here to the office about how people feel things are working here. There are a couple of things that will be good to elevate to a higher level and I think I'll have that kind of access in my brief-back when I get home.

A very long day

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:31:40 GMT

Was out of touch due to some moving about. I have come to the final country of my tour, though it took about 36 hours to go from one place to another.

The standard of living here is significantly less than what we've become used to. We thought we were "roughing it" but it wasn't even close. Worse yet, there are places to visit here that make this place look luxurious. (eyes roll)

There really isn't much to report about the last couple of days. Lots and lots of "hurry up and wait". We did get a place to sleep for a few hours that was, I kid you not, A/C'd to about 45 degrees. It was freezing. We woke up around 10:00 AM to do some shopping, eat some llunch and be ready for our flight. But our mid-afternoon flight turning into an early-next-morning flight - so early, that we didn't have a chance to go back to bed, we'd need to get up in just a few hours.

From there we hit a weather delay in the terminal, so we were stuck for an extra 3 hours waiting for the flight. Worse, the terminal was packed with at least 3 flights, so it was standing room only. Tired, standing, exhausted does not make a happy Norman.

On the plus side, the plane had plenty of room to lay down and sleep, which I did. I love my auto-blow-up mattress. It doesn't blow up much, but it provides just the right amount of space between you and the floor. And it has a normal blow-up pillow. So I slept through the flight from the moment we could get out of our seats until we had to get back in our seats for landing.

We've got our places to stay, though things may get rearranged. They didn't do a very smart coordination of "who sleeps where". In our 6-man bunk, there are 2 guys not from our group who are on a different time schedule. So they were asleep when we came in - they'll probably be up and about when we go to bed. Poor planning on someone's part, because this problem exists in all of the bunks. Stupid, really. Give me 2 days and I can probably put together a db app to manage this for them. heh.