Laughing Dogs

One of our in jokes is that we’re going to be eaten by laughing dogs (hyenas) on the way home and I’m not even sure there’s even hyenas in Iraq but there is some sort of canine in the waddie that gathers in packs and makes howls though out the night. Some of the howls sound remarkably like laughter so we imagine that there are hyenas out there. No I haven’t actually searched the internet yet on what it could be, I prefer the mystery and thrill of hyenas in the darkness.

I’m watching Stephen King’s Mist right now, its funny the opening scene is the main character is painting a poster from the Gunslinger series. Everything ties in.

News in the world that has caught my eye? A 6.3 earthquake in Nevada, Castro has stepped down, we shot down a satellite and Kosovo is breaking away. The battle for who will be our next president is going on full swing and a bunch of Kennedy paperwork has been found in Texas, I knew someone was hiding something.

Out here, we notice, we watch but it’s like we’re on another world. Days flow into one another and we form our separate groups, together but split by the customs of military courtesy. We’re together but still alone in our own journey. Each of us handling this trip his or her own way.

Our fears aren’t much different from the fears in the rear, the separation from everything strikes some of us more then others and wondering what the future will hold. Each time I came home from one of my trips overseas, the world has changed. People you knew had a half of a years worth of growth and new experiences that you don’t. Babies are now toddlers who can walk, friends have fallen in and out of love, tragedies and wonders happen that you have no clue about or weren’t there to help experience.

Even though we are making more money out here, what we’re getting paid for is missing out on the lives of people we care about. Two years of time in country is a percentage of my life which will never come back, here’s to hoping it was all worth it in the end, I’m off to work. It’s light out and there are no ghostly laughing dogs to bother me.