Internet

Well, we have gotten more done in the last week for setting up the internet than in the last 7 months. Virtually all the money has been turned in and will be submitted tonight. Ethernet cable is starting to pop up even more around our CHUs and people are definitely taking interest more closely on the progress. All thats left is finishing the running of the cables to individual rooms and submitting the money so that when the first packet is sent to our dish, my line will be the first to sign on!

Things are going OK at Launch/Recovery though we did have a minor incident this morning. But the AV was recovered successfully despite the human error/oversight. But due to the error, new changes have already been established and NO ONE is happy about it, especially the day shift. But we have all admitted to the mistake and took responsibility/blame for it, so all thats left is making sure it doesn't happen again.

Well, I am exhausted from the long night and running around the 100+ weather working on setting up the internet so I will say adieu but keep you all updated.

~David

P.S. Make sure to all have your skype phones charged and handy. I could be calling one or all of you in the next4-5 days!

Hey Everyone

I guess its been awhile (again) since i last posted, so here's the latest. Our unit actually lost a bird. (Mechanical failure... Total...Total...TOTAL loss. lol) Luckily I didnt have to piss and bleed since it was predetermined that there was no fault of ours. So yea, that was fun. Anywho, I have officially turned in my share for internet in the rooms. So it looks like that within the next week or so, I will have net available to me 24/7. The monthly cost is $68 but provides 1.5Mbps to 2Mbps. That means I will be able to FINALLY use my skype phone and laptop when I want to.

So yea, I will try to update this more often. And some care packages with more Slim Jims and Teriyaki Beef Jerky would be awesome! Well take care everyone.

Love y'all!

Cookie Platoon!

Hey bud - check out cookieplatoon.com. It is a gal from Chester,CT whose son is deployed to Afghanistan and she makes cookies to send to him. This has grown to involve many volunteers and dozens of cookies AND many troops getting homemade cookies when they are thousands of miles from home! Aunt Sher's friend sent her the info and she passed it into me. Debbie and I have emailed a few times the past couple of days and I told her about our blog so she is going to check it out and maybe post a comment. I thought you might get a kick out of hearing from someone in Chester!
Technology is great! I hope at some point when we are back east to meet her. What she is doing for our troops is amazing. She must be a very special person!
If you get the chance, I'm sure she would love to hear from you. You can contact her through the cookieplatoon.com website.

Well - how's it going? We are all fine back here. Keeping busy and out of trouble (for the most part). Dad and I have decided to travel to Michigan for our summer vacation. We certainly wanted someplace NORTH. We considered Ireland for a while but once we looked into the prices we decided against it.

Katie is still in O'fallon. She was going to leave yesterday or today, but she woke up sick yesterday so maybe she'll get on the road by Friday.
We don't have anything big planned for Father's Day this Sunday. I think we'll have a cook-out her at the house and go swimming. So far the water has been fine and the heater is working. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Gotta run - dinner is ready....

Love you lots,
mom

Power - or Lack Thereof

At 11:45 p.m. last night the power went out (again) at my house. This time it was due to some terrific winds, I'm sure. I woke up just as the power went out - possibly because it was also thundering and lightening at the time. The house was all closed up because the temp had been up to 97 yesterday and I had the a/c on when I went to bed. Of course that went off when the power went out.

I got up, took a stroll around the living room and kitchen, watched as some police cars went by the house and then went around and opened all the windows. The temperature had dropped at least 20 degrees and there was a lovely breeze. I thought I'd log on and see what was happening but ~ duh ~ realized that even wireless won't work if the router doesn't have power!

I finally fell back asleep and woke up around 6:30. I had found a D battery for my clock radio and could listen to that. I still had no power; therefore, no coffee, no hot shower, no blow dryer, and most of all ~ no car to go to work. If I lose power, the garage door won't open and since I cannot get into the garage EXCEPT through the main car door, I'm screwed. So, I called work (using my 1980s vintage rotary trim-line phone), said I'd be late and went about doing what I could without electricity.

I folded clothes, knitted, sorted a dresser drawer, knitted, started sorting knitting needles, and knitted. I called the electric company and they had a recording that the outage affected 5 towns and they expected the power to be back on around 10:00 a.m. At 10:05 I began to hear click, click, hmmmmmmm, click. The hamsters had been fed and the power was surging again. The first thing I did was open the garage door - just in case the power went out again. At least then I could get the car out and go to work. After resetting all the clocks and making sure that everything that was supposed to have power and be working was, I took my shower and got ready to go to work.

I got in about 11:15 - only after stopping to get a Dunkin Donuts French Vanilla Iced Coffee.

This is the 5th time in about 2 weeks that I've lost power at the house. Don't know what caused the others, but this one was a doozy! I was hoping it wouldn't last too, too long; I didn't want to lose the food in the fridge. On the one hand I was hoping it didn't stay off too long so I wouldn't lose the food; on the other hand, I was getting a lot of piddly stuff done around the house and was on a roll. Oh well.

But, all seems well; the power is back on ~ at least it was when I left the house about 3 hours ago; and everything seems to be working fine.

KYHD!

Shennie

Start the Car

It's back ~ the IKEA commercial. Donut ~ I know you're moonlighting in that commercial. I have seen it at least a dozen time and I laugh each time. It is you!

For those of you who haven't seen it, go to:

http://tvads.wordpress.com/2007/12/31/ikea-start-the-car/

Shennie

Care Package to the Troops, Part II

Check out this url:

http://www.telegram.com/article/200 80527/NEWS/873165981/1101

KYHD

Love,
A.S.

There and Back Again... A Soldier's Tale

Well, the re-enlistment went well and got to see some cool piece of history, as well as hang out on a FOB that doesnt require me to carry my weapon around everywhere (lucky punks). But it was nice. Got to hang out with one of our HUMINT (human intelligence) translators for the day and play some table tennis, some pool, wanted to play darts. And got a major tease from the MWR personnel cuz the FOB we were at is run by State Department personnel, so State Department personnel are allowed to consume alcohol while deployed. So that sucked seeing all that alcohol and couldnt have a sip. Its like that old sailor saying. Water Everywhere but not a Drop to Drink. One question I have is who ordered the CH-47 model industrial strength blowdryer... Talk about some heat. For those wondering, a CH-47 is the nomenclature for a Chinook. and standing behind one with engines on is like having a 20' tall blowdryer blowing on your entire body (this plus the fact that it was still like 96 degrees at 2215.) So it kind of sucked. Had to stand there because they screwed up which flight it was. Was originally announced as Marne Express. But then they were like oh crap, its the AMR flight. But they had room to allow everyone to get on. So then they had to have everyone stand there with the chinook exhaust blowing on us while they read off the manifest roster. And once on, we lifted off only to do a roundabout to pick up yet another contractor. Was funny to see the rear crew-chief hop off and simulate a running motion to the contractor (course the flight scheduler thought he meant her, but when she started approaching, he waved her off, pointed at the contractor and again simulated the running gesture. Once all that was said and done, we were on our way back. It took all of like 10 minutes to get back and once there we downloaded off the chinook, signed back into the FOB, and went to our Battalion to sign back in there. Once that was done, we had a moment to relax and look at some of the pics from the day. Was funny to see the height difference between my old Platoon Leader/XO and myself. It was like A.S. and myself. But I left Battalion and headed straight to my room, downloaded all my gear, cleared off my bed and crashed for the rest of the night. But it was a nice trip, but it was good to be back in my bed.

Oh, I did get both the Autographed pictures and the Care Package. The pics were great, and that care package. Some of the food I still might be eating towards the end of the deployment...