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The heat is starting to kick up here in Baghdad. The 10 day forecast indicates 100(+) degrees all this week and the start of next week. I was like, “Wow! Here we go.” Being the curious planning engineer that I am, I decided to check the forecast for Indianapolis area for the same time period. This coincidentally happens to be my approximate arrival to Indianapolis for my R&R. I was surprised to see how cool it was forecasted to be in Indy. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the weather in the Indianapolis area is averaging approximately 30 degrees cooler than the weather here in Baghdad:-o. Looks like I better get a Jacket .

This morning as we were getting ready for our mission it was pretty warm, probably about 70 degrees at 0200hrs this morning. We got our trucks ready to roll and cranked up the AC; it was going to be a warm one today. We hit the road like we always do; five miles per hour. Today was a pretty normal day, mostly quiet. Once we muscled our way through and over some insane traffic congestion we had mostly open road for the last 10 km of our mission. We were crossing a bridge when the lead vehicle called out something I’ve never heard since I arrived in the Middle East eight months ago. Then I saw it; there across the retaining barriers for the bridge someone had spray painted a smiley face and the phrase, “USA, Please stay.” It kind of looked like this:  USA PLEASE STAY. I could hear someone respond over the net, “No way!” The whole patrol erupted in laughter, and in my head, I agreed with them. Wearily we pushed on down the road toward the gate, and my thoughts drifted to reports, leave, and five more months.

I think that I have been in Baghdad too long because I’m starting to look and ponder things differently than I used to. For instance:

Why do the construction units build with barriers? Their mission is appearantly to block in all of Baghdad. I’m sick of concrete. Everywhere I walk, everywhere I drive there are T barriers. It’s like Baghdad adopted the Brutalist design style of the CAP building at Ball State University. Concrete is everywhere!

Why is there Concertina wire (C-wire) in the ditches around the FOB? Is that supposed to stop people from falling in, or teach them a lesson for falling in the ditch!? Not only might you bust up an ankle or arm, but you are about to get sliced and diced in the wire. Is that wire supposed to stop a vehicle from hitting the Strikers on the other side; I seriously think not, jump the ditch and nose dive right on top of a couple vehicles. Maybe they should put barriers there too, they are everywhere else already .

What the heck was the guy that planned Baghdad’s roads smoking when he was designing the roads in the beginning!? They have the craziest, most wild intersections and medians I have ever seen. Some interchanges don’t allow you to go in both directions! Sometimes there is a median, sometimes there is a curb, sometimes there is a chain-link fence on both sides of the road :-$

All the road signs in Iraq are written in Arabic and English; what’s up with that!? Did they know we were coming?

That’s all the pressing thoughts I have at this time. I hope you enjoy them . I only have a week left now! I’m very excited! It’s going to be so good to get out of Baghdad . God bless you and prosper you; until next time …

HOly cow! my vacation is coming. I was beginning to lose hope; I didn’t think R&R would ever come for me . Alas, I will depart this crazy place on 05MAY07, and begin a long journey home. I wonder what life will be like in the states again. How will I react to things? I’m sure I will be fine, for the most part. If I get too scared, I’ll just have to hold Rachel closer !

I can’t believe that my leave is just two weeks away! I am trying/planning to keep things pretty low-key and relaxed, but we’ll see what happens. There’s a lot of people to see and places to go that will keep me busy! Unfortunately, I only get to play for 14 or 15 days, but it will be very good. I can’t wait to be home if only for a little bit, but I will return home again with even bigger things on my plate . God bless you and prosper you. Until next time…