HOT Weather!!

This is a picture of the Baath Party Head Quarters. It was bombed during the war, and was so badly damaged that it sit's like you see it today. Pretty awesome to see though!

It's been really hot here with the beginning of summer. The other night, as I was refueling generators, it was still 102 Degrees, at 9:00PM. Yikes!! But today has been better, but I can hardly wait to see what it like in August.

The Air Conditioner in our Trailer quit working this afternoon. I sleep during the day, and thought it was getting a bit warm. I got up and went to the KBR Office, and they were at my trailer about 15 min later. I have to tell you, that KBR does a really good job here taking care of the Living spaces, and Dining Facilities. The new Air Conditioner was installed and an hour later, we were down to a cool 68 Degrees!!

Everything else has been going ok, Keeping busy at work, and counting the days down. The weeks are actually going pretty fast. When you work 7 Days a week, you need to find something to mark the end of one week, and the beginning of the next. With me, it's Friday night, which is seafood and steak night, plus I have a 1/2 day off. So every Friday night is my marker for the week. The DFAC, (Army for Dining Hall), also got new Blenders in and have been making Smoothies and Milkshakes, which are great, when it's so hot out.

More Later . . . . .

My Spare Time . . . .

This is a picture of the entrance to the Al Faw Palace. It's hard to show the whole thing, because it is so large. You walk into a big open area with a large Chandelier in the middle, I will post a picture of it next time.

I've been really busy the last week of so. I have been working 13 hour days. I have been going to the gym right after work, so by the time I'm done, it's later in the morning. After going to bed, I've been sleeping later, with just enough time to get up, shower, eat, and head off to work. Not much to log in and update the Blog. I need to re-arrange my time a bit. When you work such long hours, the spare time you have is precious. This working 7 days a week is different also. It's kind of like Groundhog Day!! You pick what you want to get done when you get off work, do you work out, go to the Post Office, to the PX, Check emails. You really have to prioritize what you want to get done that day.

It has been starting to get hot here during the day, highs have been up to 107, and the hot season is just beginning. The good thing is that I sleep through most of the day, and the Heat!! It's still pretty hot when I get up around 6:00 PM, will begin to cool off for the night.

I experienced a small sand storm the other morning as I was going to the Gym to work out. It was beginning to get really windy, and as I was crossing a dirt road and as I looked down the road, there was a Wall of Dirt coming at me !! I mean you could see the thing moving toward you, I couldn't believe it. I started running, but it caught up with me and started to pepper me with, dirt, small rocks, whatever else was blowing around, it actually start to sting a bit. I finally made it to the Gym, (really a big tent, that really blew around and flapped a lot when this thing came over it), where I was told that this was a small one, wait till the Big one comes through, oh yea, did I mention that I was in my PT gear, with exposed arms and legs!!! It did die down a bit as I made my way home. I'm glad they don't happen every day.

Well, I'm off to bed, as I've made the choice to get a bit more sleep today!!

Taking Classes

This is a picture of one of the staircases in the Al Faw Palace. Checkout the Chandelier!! What a place!

I have just finished attending a 2 day class at a differenct FOB, (Forward Operating Base). Is was not too far away, and still inside the wire. The class was held in another Palace, called the "Perfume Palace" No pictures as yet as I was not allowed to take one inside, but will be going back to get some pics from the outside. There is another large lake next to it, with the old Baath Party Headquarters out in the middle. It had the crap bombed out of it during the war, and is much to damaged to do anything with, so it just kinds of sits there. I will have pictures coming of it also. In it's day this whole area must have been Fabulous. But keep in mind that while Sadam and his buddies were living the good life here, the rest of the people were not even close!

I am working nights, and this class was during the day, so I had to transition from nights to days, and back to nights. Kind of tough when you are working 12 hour shifts. The first day of class wasn't too bad till the afternoon, I was pretty tired, but made it through. Yesterday wasn't too bad, after a good nights sleep. After class got out, at 8:30 PM, I got a couple of hours sleep, and then off to work to finish out my night shift. Should be not problem getting back into the swing of thing at nights. I should be able to stay on nights, for the most part, for here on out. I usually work out in the morning's before I go to bed, but am taking today off, to relax a little, and get a good sleep.

Everything else is going well here. I am getting into a schedule of working, working out at the gym, and sleeping. The food here is very good, KBR does a great job in the chow hall, which is why I'm working out at the gym. Well off to bed, more later!!

Home Sweet Home!

Finally getting settled in the trailer. My roommate and I bought a TV with dvd player, a mini fridge, and a table from a couple of the guys that we are replacing. We moved all these over to our trailer this morning after we got off work. Much better than what I had at Ft Jackson and Kuwait. We are set for the next 5 1/2 months.


The weather here has been starting to get hotter, highs should be inching up into the 100's soon. We had one day of really heavy rain, over the weekend, but that has all dried up by now.

There is a small canal across the road from my trailer. We cross a small bridge to get to the DFAC, (Army lingo for Dining Facility), where many people throw bread into the water and feed the fish. Many types of fish and turtles also. I am told that when the weather gets really hot, Big turtle, will come up from the bottom, I will see if I can get some pictures to pass along.

Many people fish here. There are several big lakes around the Al Faw Palace, with lots of fish. I have seen people use Rod and Reels, and Fly Rods also. You wouldn't want to eat any of these fish, but the fishing is fun. I might have to get a flyrod, and take it up, which might be ok, since I work nights and am off during the day.

I am starting to get a routine going where I work out at the gym right after work, and go to bed later in the morning. This really helps me get a good sleep through the day.

The people that we are replacing here will be living here in the next several days. Good bunch of guys, and have been very helpful in training us for the work to be done. They have been here for a year and are anxious to get home, as you can imagine.

I will get some new photographs of the lakes around the Al Faw Palace and post them in my upcoming posts.