Generators

Apparently, Harley Davidson is branching out from making their world renowned motorcycles and delving into the generator market for lightsets in Kuwait. They have installed a few here at Camp Virginia. While the wheeled contraptions lack the signature chrome or the orange blazing eagle that we've come to signify with Harley's, the generators do posses the patented exhaust that make the Harley brand motorcycle so popular. It gives one the impression of sleeping at a biker-rally in say someplace sandy, like Daytona, minus the bikini clad women.

So, waiting in Kuwait is not very fun. Before I go down this tirade, let me start by saying that yes, I am happy not to be in Iraq anymore. Yes, I am lucky that no one is shooting mortars at me. Yes, I'm grateful that I'll be going home soon. No, I have not forgot my friends who are still sitting in the IZ waiting for their time to be up to get out of there. With that said, Kuwait still isn't very fun. Due to the long wait for an available aircraft, we have come to regard this place as pseudo purgatory. It does not personify the frustrating and sometimes dangerous environment of Iraq, but it also does not have the freedoms of being in the US. We're stuck in the middle without much to do but think about how we can make the next hour go by faster. We have depleted all the distractions we brought with us; all the movies watched, all the books read and all the bags repacked (twice). Yes, we recognize that we ought to just enjoy this time of relaxation, but it wears on us when we know that the only thing standing between us and our individual homes are the multiple hours that make up the next few days. It also gives you too much time to think and to anticipate what the real world is going to be like. Sure, we all have our perceptions of how it's going to be after 16 months of being away from home, but the reality is that things will be very different. Friends have changed, family has changed, even the roads that were under construction when you left have changed. I'm sure all of us deployed have changed as well, although our adjustments are less noticeable to each other than they will be to the people we are close to back home. Without a job or rocket attack to preoccupy our minds, some of us have diverted our thoughts on what we'll do in the "real world" when our Uncle Sam releases us from duty. So we wait with anticipation, hoping for the best but preparing ourselves for the worse, and to quote Tom Petty, "Waiting is the hardest part."

On a different note, I've run into some of the old IRR folks that got called up with me at Ft. Benning back in January of 2007 but didn't deploy with me to Iraq. Most of them are stationed here in Kuwait to run security for convoys and I have seen them in the chow hall now and then after they've returned from a mission. Unfortunately I will be going home before them, but that's only because they didn't arrive in country until June 07 and will leave in May 08. It appears that Uncle Sam is going to get the full 545 days out of them for their activation.

I've been slacking in the picture taking department lately, but I hope to rectify that today although there really isn't much to see except tents and desert...lots and lots of desert.