Weekend wrap-up

I had a pretty good week this week. We had another dust storm come in a couple days ago and it looked like it was going to be a doozy. Well, it lasted for about 24 hours and then moved on. It did have the effect of keeping temperatures down for a bit, so for that I'm thankful.

We only had three men at our weekly meeting for the "The Purpose Driven Life" instead of the 8 or 9 we had a couple weeks ago. I hope that was because the others simply couldn't get away in time and not because they've lost interest. Speaking of church stuff, I'll be leading the singing this Sunday evening again. We only have a guitar player who's on an acoustic, so adding a bass to that doesn't make much sense. If there was a keyboard player, then I'd play to make a trio out of it. Oh well. I'll play for the morning service and I may even be playing a new bass! The man who is going to give it to me said he received it after playing some Irish tunes at the St. Patrick's Day "festival" here in March. Since he doesn't play bass he said I could have it! I'll play it while I'm here and if the new bass that was ordered by the chapel staff doesn't arrive by the time I get ready to go home, I'll leave it here. I hope I get to take it home though.

I'm looking into what classes I'm going to take from AMU when I finish this "e-learning 101" I have to take. It's apparently just a course on how to use their online library and other online college applications. I want to breeze through the class to get my GPA started off on the right track (can you say four point oh?) and then get on to my other core classes. The school has deemed me worthy of receiving transfer credits for 48 units. I think that makes me a sophomore. I wonder which fraternity I'll pledge? I think I'll stick with Epsilon Gamma Alpha for now. Anyway, I'm looking at either finishing my English requirement or even knocking out the literature class. Wish me luck!

I got to talk (actually talk) to the family last weekend. I'll call again later today to see if anything new has transpired. It's good to hear my wife and kids' voices from time to time. She is definitely doing better at coping this time. We think it's a combination of having been through it so much recently and also the fact that the boy can help by taking care of himself has relieved much of her burden. Thank God for the eventual passage of time. I just wish I'd be home for his musical and for my daughter's dance recital. Guess it's a good thing we have a video camera.

We won our softball game this morning and we have another one tomorrow morning. Fortunately I have not had to miss a ball game yet for church. It's just worked out that way by the schedule. Hopefully it continues, but I've already decided that if there is a conflict then I won't be playing ball that day. It's all about priorities. Since the kids do movie night on Fridays, I thought I would join them and I used the big screen here to watch a movie last night. I think I'll just start doing that every Friday. I had a couple other guys join me to watch "Transformers" last night. (My wife was not surprised.)

Well, I think that pretty much sums up my week. Yes, I did do some actual work, but that's nothing anyone back home wants to read about. Have a great weekend and drop me a line or leave me a comment.

TWI(B)S

It should be "This Week in Baseball" but we play softball out here. I know! I'm in a combat zone and I'm writing home to my wife to send me my softball gear. What's that all about? Anyway, we had three games over the weekend and we went 1-1-1. Huh? A tie in softball? Yes. The league organizers declared a time limit for each game, which is fine, but they called the game for time right in the middle of our comeback. Seriously. We had just tied the game. I was on third base as the go-ahead run and the whistle sounded. Just like that. How dumb is that? Anyway, that's how we got a tie over the weekend. I may try to post a picture but based on how long it took me to post the other one about the Easter decorations, I probably won't worry too much about it.

Another... sand storm?!

Holy Smokes! Well, I'd call it smoke, but it's dust. And tons of it, too. I was walking back to the office from dinner and I was walking into a wall of dirt. It came from somewhere and steadily covered the horizon. My mind instantly came to two conclusions:

1) Oh, crap, there's going to be dust all over EVERYTHING!
2) You know, if that were rain it would look a lot like that rain storm I got caught in when I was in Okinawa in 1993.

Then a third conclusion worked its way forward: You'd better move it or you're going to end up breathing this stuff.

So I ran. I made it to the building just about a minute before the storm did. It was Cruise-azy I tell you. As I type this some 4 hours later, it's still howling outside. Of course now it's really dark and wouldn't you know it... I left my flashlight back in my can. Ugh!

On a positive note, I got to play some softball this past weekend. Unfortunately, since I left my glove at home (honestly, who thinks to pack softball gear when deploying to a combat zone?) I had to use a brand new one given to me by MWR. Well, when you're playing firstbase you need to have a glove that's nicely broken in so the ball doesn't pop right out and cause you to lose at least two outs. Trust me on that one. Still, it was fun to play and we actually have a league here on base and we play every weekend (weather permitting).

So this week's off to an interesting start. How's yours?

Lovely weather we're having... NOT!

I hope your weekend was a good one. I attended our 1100 “main” Protestant service, which is labeled as “contemporary” and means that we have a praise band instead of an organist leading the worship music. In fact, the size of the band was pretty impressive. There were three or four guitars and about a ½ dozen singers, plus bass, keyboard, and even a drummer. I’ve already plugged in and made introductions. The bass player is supposed to be going home this week and I’ve already been asked if I could step in. Let me think for a sec… yes! Actually, I was supposed to play bass last night for the 7pm service. I say “supposed to” because when I got there the chaplain told me that the lead guitar/lead singer wasn’t going to be able to make it. He then asked if I could lead the singing. Since I can’t play and sing at the same time, I sang. It went off pretty okay I suppose. While we were practicing, the room got dustier and dustier as a sandstorm blew in. Then, just as the service was getting started, it rained very hard for about 5 minutes. That had the effect of turning everything outside into mud. Ewwww!

Anyway, today is off to a start and I need to get some work done. I do love having the internet connection out here, but I’m looking forward to talking with my family by phone as soon as I get a phone card. Of all the things to forget to bring with me…

Have a great week and thanks for reading.

Yeah! I finally got a picture to post. This was one of the decorations that were set up for Easter at the DFAC (Dining FACility). I doubt I'll be able to get more to post so I'm not even going to try. Maybe my wife will have better luck on her blog, if she's so inclined.

Easter weekend

We had a service for Good Friday on Friday (duh!) at the chapel here on base. Seven different chaplains each took one of the seven statements Jesus made while being crucified and gave a short sermonette on it and we sang a verse of a hymn in between each one. It was very moving and I thought it was quite a good service. I fasted yesterday and took it pretty easy. There's not much for an admin guy like me to do on the weekends so I just put some finishing touches on getting my gear stored away.

This morning there was a sunrise service/breakfast at the chow hall and there were about 70 people there. It was pretty good too. A different chaplain (how many of them are there on this base anyway?) gave a short talk about the first rays of sun that lit the way to the first rays of hope on that first Easter Sunday. It was pretty good too. I thought it was amusing how many people started staring at us when we started all singing songs together.

The combined Protestant service at 11 was pretty awesome. It was held in the base's theater and we actually filled the place! There was a good size gospel choir leading the music and there was an interpretive dance done by mimes. It sounds funny, but they performed to a gospel song soundtrack and it was quite moving. I went back to the chow hall for lunch and they had finished decorating. I had to take pictures of what they put up. Besides, I said I was going to take some pictures today, right? Anyway, I'll get those onto the computer tonight so I can post a couple tomorrow. It almost reminded me of that one house that every neighborhood seems to have that apparently adds a new Christmas decoration every year and they've been doing it for 50 years. You know what I mean? That one house that confuses airline pilots because of all the lights? Well, the middle of the chow hall was like that, but it was all pastels and eggs and chocolate and bunnies and a couple of poorly drawn angels. If my kids were here I'm sure they would have loved it. Even the staff had little paper vests over their normal shirts decorated with pastel eggs. But the thing that almost made me laugh out loud was this giant... marshmellow... bunny. It was about 4 feet tall and posted on top of a mini-house platform so that it stands about 6 feet off the floor. The first thing that popped into my head was the last VeggieTales show I watched with my kids before I left. I'll give you a hint... it had to do with chocolate bunnies and how everyone was required to look up to this giant bunny built by Mr. Nezzer. Too funny.

Anyway, that's my Easter so far. I'm going to the evening service tonight then I'll try to implement this schedule I've built over the last few days. We'll see what happens. It's already starting to get warm out here. Going to be a long summer...

picture pages, picture pages...

I hope to play tourist this afternoon and take some pictures of the base I'm calling home for the summer. I'll also take some pictures of the Easter services tomorrow and should be able to put a few shots up early next week.

The internet is weird out here. Sometimes I go a whole day without hearing from back home. Of course, that may be because the kids are sick and Wonder Woman is so tired from dealing with them that she just doesn't have the "oomph!" to do anything. Then, at other times, I'll get a whole slew of emails from people I'm trying to contact for work and family related stuff as well. I'm thinking I may revamp my work schedule to be in the office more in the afternoon/evening which is when people back home are up and about. We'll see.

I took this week pretty easy to see what the schedule was like and get settled into my quarters. I'll add some PT to the schedule next week and see what adjustments (if any) need to be made.