A sure way to make sure it rains on any given day is not to bring your Gortex or rain gear to work. It started raining as soon as I stepped off the bus with thunder rolling in the distance. Actually it's better out here after the rain, clears much of the dust out of the air and gives a cool welcome relief from the sun. Guess I should enjoy the rain, before I know it will be summer and there will not be a cloud in sight.
Welcome to the land of MP3 players, last time I was out here, one out of three Marines had one, this trip it's more 4 out of 5, same for laptops. MP3 players are the In Thing, half of them are Ipod's and the rest are other brands (I have a Sony one gig model, my only gripe is that its not USB 2.0, otherwise it works great, 50 plus hours of music play in a very small package that is USB charged). Music is the easiest way to bring home a bit closer when you're off in a distant land. I've noticed there are many more happy people out here then my prior trips. I wonder how much of that is because they have their own "happy mix" programmed in there?
We do have limited internet access from work and the internet café allows you to check all of your web based email accounts, Myspace and update my blog but I wish there was a place on base where you could plug personal laptops into the internet, not to download music (it's much easier to get MP3's from buddies that have tens of thousands of songs on their external hard drives) but it's nice to get updates for the computer. Plus the powers that be wouldn't have to worry about as much wear and tear on the computers in the internet cafes (which are all mostly trashed after being out here for 3 years) if people were able to use their own computers on a WiFi network. The lines would be shorter and all we need is a flat spot, a plug and a wireless router or three. I'm not sure if it's for security reasons, financial or just because they don't want to be bothered for not doing this. But from the average peon on the ground, I know there would be a large boost in moral with a very small price tag. Just my two cents on that subject.
There was a sign outside the PX, very official looking with a AFFES logo saying that there was going to be a Class 6 store with beer, wine and liquor coming fall 2006. We saw this sign a couple of days after we hit the deck and everybody went woah, hope we're here when that opens while thinking at the same time, alcohol in a war zone? Who's crazy idea is that? It finally dawned on us what day it was. April 1st.
Good one.
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