Jack_Crow
Enlightened
Hi all,
Today I go to write another letter, and the network that handles our non secret and secret communications takes a dump, hard. So you won't see this until the 'Nipper Net' (that's what it's called I can't make this stuff up!) comes back on line.
You're getting this note while I'm in a state of funk. On the outside it's my usual glum work a day attitude. On the inside is a deep aching void. Sunday was the anniversary of when Joanne and I were married. Some of you know the story. We eloped on Leap Day 1996, and then forgot to tell anybody. If you're interested we have some photos and clippings from then. Our pet Nipper was the 'dog of honor'. The wedding ended with "You may kiss the bride and greet your dog". So I gave Joanne a peck and then gave Nipper the word to jump in our arms. It was a cute moment. As explained you get a lot of time to think in this place. To be alone with your memories.
New Topic……
I don't know how many of you can detach and watch human interaction, or more accurately the lack of it.
You also find out that human stupidity tends to happen in waves. Here it's about every 5 weeks it seems. We are cresting again. Stupidity has peaked. Another way of saying something is "If an activity is fine on Tuesday, why isn't it just as fine on Thursday?"
Stupid cycle number one.
The interface between the company and the Army is an LT who is not used to dealing with the real world. He gives orders to privates just fine, but has no clue on how to deal with civilian contractors who have more years of work experience than he has at being alive. He may be a signals officer but that won't make him an expert at these gizmos.
As it turns out the network outage was due to getting a bad crypto key from, guess whose people. LT Know Nothing and his partner Sgt Unwilling to Think. When that happens we have to hop through hoops to figure out which side has the failure. Mind you my Satcom unit was working just fine, so I'm on phone duty and helping out where I can. Cleaned up some cables, and made some improvised scope probes. I'm on the side observing all of this. Front row seats for the circus.
Lots of back and forth, tests, loop backs, all kinds of stuff. When the proper keys are loaded, what a difference a bit makes. Things come back to life.
Anyhow this LT is due here today to 'discuss' the network outages. I suspect he is in for a rude awakening. How do you tell someone they are a 'dolt' politely? We have had this problem before and this LT nearly was sacked for it then. Today I expect to learn about Army and company politics. Today should be an interesting day.
Stupid Cycle Number Two
This one is truly distasteful. Army life ain't easy for us 'F.A. Civilians". In my tent we have a total of 5 company dudes and two PX guys.
Let me tell you about the working conditions of our PX. It's made out of a tractor trailer truck. The gate opens in the back for the entrance and a side door let's troopers out again. It's a big metal box in the sun. It has lights and refrigeration units inside. Usually about 10 customers as well. A metal box in sunlight is a great way to build up heat. Noon time temps for the last three days have been in the 90's. Not dank like Virginia, but nice dry heat. Iraqi heat is the kind of heat that won't leave you feeling sticky.
The "stock rooms" for the PX are a series of conex containers, also in the sun. You get the idea; this guy earns his pay the hard way. Physical labor, dealing with armed troopers, the works. Seems when the Marines cycle through the base they clean out his store. More work. You are getting the picture here. Hard work and a history of poor hygiene.
The problem is his feet. Ripe ain't the word. They would repel a Fresh Kills landfill seagull.
This guy has been 'talked to privately' within the tent community. I've talked to him about my own foot issues and what medications I was given to cure it. It didn't get much better, and with the advent heat season, the situation has taken a turn for the worse.
Nothing we have said has improved to any degree (pun intended) this guys feet.
It's now gone to the camp Command Sergeant Major. (I gather this is the top of the food chain for enlisted dudes). Hopefully the CSM will be able to convince this guy to shower once in a while and get his feet treated.
The situation as of last night.
Anyhow he came back to the tent after lights out last night. Apparently someone got to him and convinced him to take a shower. Every little bit helps. I didn't gag in my rack. My bunk is right next to his and I get a potent dose. Inverse square law kill. Wasn't too bad last night, but as the study of humans go, time will tell.
The bear of the deal is with his boots on; he is basically a nice guy, and a good one to know.
You want some irony here. He has been talking about going back to his life in Germany, as a tattoo artist.
Stupid Cycle number three
As you may have heard on CNN, KBR (Kellogg Root and Brown, part of Halliburton) handles almost all the heavy work of the base. They fix the toilet trailers, keep the septic system running, give us water, wire up the generators, and build the wood products.
What they do they do very well.
The deal works like this. We send to the base Mayor's office a request for work. The Mayor decides what we need and signs off on the request. The request goes to KBR for building.
Because of the number of phone and data runs, it was decided to plant PVC plastic pipe under ground and pull our wires across the compound via the pipes. KBR did this for us.
Then a bozo from a departing maintenance company picks just the right spot to park his five ton truck over our pipe. Crushing it and filling it with ground water. Guess what, the path to the Mayor's office is now compromised.
We get the maintenance bozo to move his truck, now KBR says it had no business running the pipe to begin with and won't replace it. About five weeks ago we had a similar standoff over another issue. KBR's contract is with the Army not ITT. Now we have to go through hoops to beat people so the Mayor can have her phone and data drops back. Why can't people make up their mind and keep it there.
In other news……….
There was a rumor that bad guys were going to visit here in the next few days. It was accurate. Seems I slept through the entire thing. The over night guy said he heard shots and bangs. Perhaps I could sleep through a war and miss it. Anyhow, he was ordered to get his Kevlar on.
On the PX line you meet some fun troopers. About mid point one asks if they take a debit card. When this trooper finds out that the answer is no, a panic set's in. When this happened I was standing in the middle of a bunch of guys with a large red (1) on their shoulders. What could I do, I gave the guy a twenty and told him to get what he needed. I got back change. I've learned what the little things in life become to a man in the field. Hopefully this little bit of kindness will make the rounds.
With Joanne's and my anniversary looming I ordered via a web based service for a large lumpy thing to be delivered to her office. Sent her some kind of well stocked food basket. The kind with deluxe apples and oranges. Some gourmet cheese items. Also put some smart remarks on the card. Something about prison life. We will see if anybody get's bent about it. If you don't make jokes about the situation here, it's real easy to get depressed.
Out here you find 'close to the heart' moments in music. Songs that deal with separation bring a strong emotion that can only be quashed with the greatest of effort. Any of you ever heard a science based country song? This one is about star travel at sub light speed. It also fits the mood rather well. Living here is like being on a slow boat or like time spent on Coney Island, it's not subtracted from your life's ledger.
Bet you don't remember (except for Jason W.) where this one (Benson Arizona by Bill Tailor) came from……….
Rays of sun shine down
But I see only one
When I think I'm over you
I find I've just begun
The years move faster than the days
There no warmth in the light
How I miss those desert skies
Your cool touch in the night
Benson Arizona, blew warm wind through your hair
My body fly's the galaxy
My heart longs to be there
Benson Arizona the same stars in the sky
The days seemed so much kinder when we watched them you and I
Now the years pull us apart
I'm young and now you're old
But you're still in my heart
And the memory won't go cold
I dream of times and spaces I left far behind
Where we spent our last few days
Benson's on my mind
Benson Arizona, blew warm wind through your hair
My body fly's the galaxy
My heart longs to be there
Benson Arizona the same stars in the sky
The days seemed so much kinder when we watched them you and I
On the same line of thinking, remember the Queen Song called "The year of '39". Badly paraphrased here.
Don't you hear my call?
Though you're many years away
Don't you hear me calling you?
Write you letters in the sand
For the day ill take your hand
In the land that our grand children knew
In the year of 39 came a shift in from the blue
The volunteers came home that day
Though they bring good news of a world so newly born
Their hearts so heavily weigh
For the earth is old and gray
Little darling went away
Though so many years have gone
I'm no older but a year
From your eyes, your mothers eyes, cry to me
It's a song about space travel, the long slow kind of space travel. Where a ship winds it self up near the speed of light and the passengers aging process slows down. I found this song that covers the same subject. The first one comes from the movie Dark Star. Rent it or buy it. It think it's worth the money. The second one from Queen's "Night at the Opera" album, another classic.
This would make a heck of a trivia question for Jeopardy!
Me "Strange Songs about Space Travel for 400 Alex"
Alex "Name two songs that deal with relativistic space Travel"
Me "Benson Arizona by Bill Taylor and "Year of 39" by Queen
Alex "That is correct"
Me "Bible Trivia for 600"
Alex "What are the first names of Mary and Joseph's in-laws"
Me "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….
This job is a form of space travel. (Remind me to crank up the oxygen level.)
The long slow kind. Where calendars are more important than clocks. The clocks tell of time, the calendars speak of position.
Number of days employed by ITT 86 (four more and I get to be a full employee)
This many days till going home 279
Time till Joanne's and my vacation in Europe. Roughly 100 days more. I feel every second.
Hope all is well.
Keep it warm, you know I will.
Mike in Iraq
I dream of times and spaces I left far behind
Where we spent our last few days
Reston's on my mind
Today I go to write another letter, and the network that handles our non secret and secret communications takes a dump, hard. So you won't see this until the 'Nipper Net' (that's what it's called I can't make this stuff up!) comes back on line.
You're getting this note while I'm in a state of funk. On the outside it's my usual glum work a day attitude. On the inside is a deep aching void. Sunday was the anniversary of when Joanne and I were married. Some of you know the story. We eloped on Leap Day 1996, and then forgot to tell anybody. If you're interested we have some photos and clippings from then. Our pet Nipper was the 'dog of honor'. The wedding ended with "You may kiss the bride and greet your dog". So I gave Joanne a peck and then gave Nipper the word to jump in our arms. It was a cute moment. As explained you get a lot of time to think in this place. To be alone with your memories.
New Topic……
I don't know how many of you can detach and watch human interaction, or more accurately the lack of it.
You also find out that human stupidity tends to happen in waves. Here it's about every 5 weeks it seems. We are cresting again. Stupidity has peaked. Another way of saying something is "If an activity is fine on Tuesday, why isn't it just as fine on Thursday?"
Stupid cycle number one.
The interface between the company and the Army is an LT who is not used to dealing with the real world. He gives orders to privates just fine, but has no clue on how to deal with civilian contractors who have more years of work experience than he has at being alive. He may be a signals officer but that won't make him an expert at these gizmos.
As it turns out the network outage was due to getting a bad crypto key from, guess whose people. LT Know Nothing and his partner Sgt Unwilling to Think. When that happens we have to hop through hoops to figure out which side has the failure. Mind you my Satcom unit was working just fine, so I'm on phone duty and helping out where I can. Cleaned up some cables, and made some improvised scope probes. I'm on the side observing all of this. Front row seats for the circus.
Lots of back and forth, tests, loop backs, all kinds of stuff. When the proper keys are loaded, what a difference a bit makes. Things come back to life.
Anyhow this LT is due here today to 'discuss' the network outages. I suspect he is in for a rude awakening. How do you tell someone they are a 'dolt' politely? We have had this problem before and this LT nearly was sacked for it then. Today I expect to learn about Army and company politics. Today should be an interesting day.
Stupid Cycle Number Two
This one is truly distasteful. Army life ain't easy for us 'F.A. Civilians". In my tent we have a total of 5 company dudes and two PX guys.
Let me tell you about the working conditions of our PX. It's made out of a tractor trailer truck. The gate opens in the back for the entrance and a side door let's troopers out again. It's a big metal box in the sun. It has lights and refrigeration units inside. Usually about 10 customers as well. A metal box in sunlight is a great way to build up heat. Noon time temps for the last three days have been in the 90's. Not dank like Virginia, but nice dry heat. Iraqi heat is the kind of heat that won't leave you feeling sticky.
The "stock rooms" for the PX are a series of conex containers, also in the sun. You get the idea; this guy earns his pay the hard way. Physical labor, dealing with armed troopers, the works. Seems when the Marines cycle through the base they clean out his store. More work. You are getting the picture here. Hard work and a history of poor hygiene.
The problem is his feet. Ripe ain't the word. They would repel a Fresh Kills landfill seagull.
This guy has been 'talked to privately' within the tent community. I've talked to him about my own foot issues and what medications I was given to cure it. It didn't get much better, and with the advent heat season, the situation has taken a turn for the worse.
Nothing we have said has improved to any degree (pun intended) this guys feet.
It's now gone to the camp Command Sergeant Major. (I gather this is the top of the food chain for enlisted dudes). Hopefully the CSM will be able to convince this guy to shower once in a while and get his feet treated.
The situation as of last night.
Anyhow he came back to the tent after lights out last night. Apparently someone got to him and convinced him to take a shower. Every little bit helps. I didn't gag in my rack. My bunk is right next to his and I get a potent dose. Inverse square law kill. Wasn't too bad last night, but as the study of humans go, time will tell.
The bear of the deal is with his boots on; he is basically a nice guy, and a good one to know.
You want some irony here. He has been talking about going back to his life in Germany, as a tattoo artist.
Stupid Cycle number three
As you may have heard on CNN, KBR (Kellogg Root and Brown, part of Halliburton) handles almost all the heavy work of the base. They fix the toilet trailers, keep the septic system running, give us water, wire up the generators, and build the wood products.
What they do they do very well.
The deal works like this. We send to the base Mayor's office a request for work. The Mayor decides what we need and signs off on the request. The request goes to KBR for building.
Because of the number of phone and data runs, it was decided to plant PVC plastic pipe under ground and pull our wires across the compound via the pipes. KBR did this for us.
Then a bozo from a departing maintenance company picks just the right spot to park his five ton truck over our pipe. Crushing it and filling it with ground water. Guess what, the path to the Mayor's office is now compromised.
We get the maintenance bozo to move his truck, now KBR says it had no business running the pipe to begin with and won't replace it. About five weeks ago we had a similar standoff over another issue. KBR's contract is with the Army not ITT. Now we have to go through hoops to beat people so the Mayor can have her phone and data drops back. Why can't people make up their mind and keep it there.
In other news……….
There was a rumor that bad guys were going to visit here in the next few days. It was accurate. Seems I slept through the entire thing. The over night guy said he heard shots and bangs. Perhaps I could sleep through a war and miss it. Anyhow, he was ordered to get his Kevlar on.
On the PX line you meet some fun troopers. About mid point one asks if they take a debit card. When this trooper finds out that the answer is no, a panic set's in. When this happened I was standing in the middle of a bunch of guys with a large red (1) on their shoulders. What could I do, I gave the guy a twenty and told him to get what he needed. I got back change. I've learned what the little things in life become to a man in the field. Hopefully this little bit of kindness will make the rounds.
With Joanne's and my anniversary looming I ordered via a web based service for a large lumpy thing to be delivered to her office. Sent her some kind of well stocked food basket. The kind with deluxe apples and oranges. Some gourmet cheese items. Also put some smart remarks on the card. Something about prison life. We will see if anybody get's bent about it. If you don't make jokes about the situation here, it's real easy to get depressed.
Out here you find 'close to the heart' moments in music. Songs that deal with separation bring a strong emotion that can only be quashed with the greatest of effort. Any of you ever heard a science based country song? This one is about star travel at sub light speed. It also fits the mood rather well. Living here is like being on a slow boat or like time spent on Coney Island, it's not subtracted from your life's ledger.
Bet you don't remember (except for Jason W.) where this one (Benson Arizona by Bill Tailor) came from……….
Rays of sun shine down
But I see only one
When I think I'm over you
I find I've just begun
The years move faster than the days
There no warmth in the light
How I miss those desert skies
Your cool touch in the night
Benson Arizona, blew warm wind through your hair
My body fly's the galaxy
My heart longs to be there
Benson Arizona the same stars in the sky
The days seemed so much kinder when we watched them you and I
Now the years pull us apart
I'm young and now you're old
But you're still in my heart
And the memory won't go cold
I dream of times and spaces I left far behind
Where we spent our last few days
Benson's on my mind
Benson Arizona, blew warm wind through your hair
My body fly's the galaxy
My heart longs to be there
Benson Arizona the same stars in the sky
The days seemed so much kinder when we watched them you and I
On the same line of thinking, remember the Queen Song called "The year of '39". Badly paraphrased here.
Don't you hear my call?
Though you're many years away
Don't you hear me calling you?
Write you letters in the sand
For the day ill take your hand
In the land that our grand children knew
In the year of 39 came a shift in from the blue
The volunteers came home that day
Though they bring good news of a world so newly born
Their hearts so heavily weigh
For the earth is old and gray
Little darling went away
Though so many years have gone
I'm no older but a year
From your eyes, your mothers eyes, cry to me
It's a song about space travel, the long slow kind of space travel. Where a ship winds it self up near the speed of light and the passengers aging process slows down. I found this song that covers the same subject. The first one comes from the movie Dark Star. Rent it or buy it. It think it's worth the money. The second one from Queen's "Night at the Opera" album, another classic.
This would make a heck of a trivia question for Jeopardy!
Me "Strange Songs about Space Travel for 400 Alex"
Alex "Name two songs that deal with relativistic space Travel"
Me "Benson Arizona by Bill Taylor and "Year of 39" by Queen
Alex "That is correct"
Me "Bible Trivia for 600"
Alex "What are the first names of Mary and Joseph's in-laws"
Me "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….
This job is a form of space travel. (Remind me to crank up the oxygen level.)
The long slow kind. Where calendars are more important than clocks. The clocks tell of time, the calendars speak of position.
Number of days employed by ITT 86 (four more and I get to be a full employee)
This many days till going home 279
Time till Joanne's and my vacation in Europe. Roughly 100 days more. I feel every second.
Hope all is well.
Keep it warm, you know I will.
Mike in Iraq
I dream of times and spaces I left far behind
Where we spent our last few days
Reston's on my mind
