Birds singing?
Little tiny birds singing me awake. A cacophony of short chirps and longer songs set to the desert sunrise.
I forgot there were birds here. They don’t show birds singing on CNN or Fox News when they talk about the wars in the Middle East.
I quite like waking up to desert birdsong on my first morning. I’ll take that as a good way to start.
Little tiny birds singing me awake. A cacophony of short chirps and longer songs set to the desert sunrise.
I forgot there were birds here. They don’t show birds singing on CNN or Fox News when they talk about the wars in the Middle East.
I quite like waking up to desert birdsong on my first morning. I’ll take that as a good way to start.
Finally got myself some decent sleep. Due to jet lag and the unusually cold floor of our transport plane, I got no more than 3hrs of straight sleep since leaving Washington on Friday the 5th.
So to call my 8hrs of sleep last night glorious is no understatement.
I’m about to head into the desert sun for a run and workout, but thought a quick post was in store while my workout tunes load onto my phone.
We arrived in country after several hours of flying. The moment the plane reaches cruise altitude, we unbuckle and spread out like refugees across the floor: everyone throwing down sleeping pads and blankets in hopes of finding a little rest. But this plane had a weak floor-heater and few were able to sleep due to the cold radiating through insulated pads and thin sleeping bags.
Arriving in country brings back old memories. Some of them are good, some not so much. One of my favorite sensations is the smell of a foreign land. In Africa, the smell of earth and wood smoke always put a smile on my face. Here in the Middle East, it’s more of a warm, dusty scent. No way to describe it other than that.
The cargo ramp lowers and the smell of the desert rushes in. Hot sunshine floods in through windows and the doorway; a nice respite from the frigid floor temps. And there is that tan, sand colored horizon. A few military bunkers in the distance, but mostly nothing on first glance.
So to call my 8hrs of sleep last night glorious is no understatement.
I’m about to head into the desert sun for a run and workout, but thought a quick post was in store while my workout tunes load onto my phone.
We arrived in country after several hours of flying. The moment the plane reaches cruise altitude, we unbuckle and spread out like refugees across the floor: everyone throwing down sleeping pads and blankets in hopes of finding a little rest. But this plane had a weak floor-heater and few were able to sleep due to the cold radiating through insulated pads and thin sleeping bags.
Arriving in country brings back old memories. Some of them are good, some not so much. One of my favorite sensations is the smell of a foreign land. In Africa, the smell of earth and wood smoke always put a smile on my face. Here in the Middle East, it’s more of a warm, dusty scent. No way to describe it other than that.
The cargo ramp lowers and the smell of the desert rushes in. Hot sunshine floods in through windows and the doorway; a nice respite from the frigid floor temps. And there is that tan, sand colored horizon. A few military bunkers in the distance, but mostly nothing on first glance.
We offload our myriad of bags: flight gear, chemical warfare suits, a shopping bag of mostly eaten food from Germany, books/computer/comfort items, and a wide selection of workout, civilian, and military clothing. This part of a deployment is called the “bag drag” as you drag and tote your stuff off the plane, down a taxiway, to a car, to a processing building, back to a truck, to another building, back to the same truck, then to yet another building, and finally across rocks that are just big enough to imped the crappy little wheels on your Pelican case so that you begin cussing at the design of the wheels and at whoever laid down such stupid G’damn rocks between the last piece of hard-packed earth and the dilapidated trailer park that is your “new” home 150yds away.
No complaints though: this is an easy deployment. I’ve got a roof over my head, electricity, an air conditioner unit, and by God, I’ve got intermittent wi-fi. Is this the sort of trailer that Steven Avery (of ‘Making a Murderer’ fame) lived in? Yup. But maybe a bit more beat up inside.
I’ll go in to further detail later. For now it’s time for the first workout of the deployment, a late breakfast, and then off to the skies. -RMM
No complaints though: this is an easy deployment. I’ve got a roof over my head, electricity, an air conditioner unit, and by God, I’ve got intermittent wi-fi. Is this the sort of trailer that Steven Avery (of ‘Making a Murderer’ fame) lived in? Yup. But maybe a bit more beat up inside.
I’ll go in to further detail later. For now it’s time for the first workout of the deployment, a late breakfast, and then off to the skies. -RMM