Time Moves On

It may seem that more of the recent posts are not as positive as they have been in the past. It might be that after 8 months of groundhog days, it has begun to wear on me. I am trying to keep outside interests such as my photography while here. I think this helps out a considerable amount. I have been fortunate to have a good friend, Cynthia Roelle who shares an interest in photography. We have been able to head out about once a week to travel around Camp Victory and take photos of just about everything interesting here. We are very limited on what we can photograph, so that adds an additional challenge. This past week, Ben Grimes joined us and will probably be joining us on all of our future photo outings until his departure. We went to the Victory Over America Palace to photograph some of the destruction that occurred a few years ago. We went there in the middle of the afternoon and the temperatures were around 115 degrees with no breeze at all. We stayed for about an hour and a half to captured what we could, but since I forgot to bring my tripod and the lighting was so bad, I have planned on going back a few more times before we leave for good. I have attached a few pictures from our recent trips there.



Victory Over America Palace


Victory Over America Palace


Baath Party Headquarters

Comedy, Traffic, and Heat

Comedy
I have been borrowing the DVD set "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and I am really enjoying it. But what I have been noticing, the people here could have been on a show just like that. We have so many characters and quirky individuals, I just know there is a story here. I know, most would say, what makes your group any different from the others? Well, I am here to tell you they you have never seen a group like this. There are about 8-10 that could clearly be considered a "character" with their normal behavior. It is just amusing to see how it all works. I guess I am very lucky to have such a great group.

Traffic Cop?
We will start off most mornings at breakfast discussing the previous day and what we are not looking forward to for the remainder of that particular day. Throughout the day, we have people coming in and out of our office with questions and packets that need to be reviewed and forwarded up the chain to our higher headquarters. We spend most of our day directing traffic.

Could someone turn on the air?
The days are getting longer and hotter. As we walk outside, we try to describe the feeling of the intense heat. The best description we can come up with is standing one step too close to that bon fire, except here, you can't back up-it is all around you. Below is a sample from today, also take a look at the 5-day forecast. Yippee - not.

Rest and Recuperation

I have been pretty busy since my last blog entry. I departed to R&R (Rest and Recuperation) in Heidelberg Germany. While there, Margi and I traveled to Strasbourg, France where we visited the historic old town where the Cathedral is located. We stayed there for two days.


Strasbourg, France


Margi and me downtown Strasbourg, France.



Cathedral in Strasbourg, France.

Upon our return, we gathered the kids and took them to a surprise destination. They did not know where we were going until we arrived in the Netherlands. We stayed on a small private island called Den Kaag. It was pretty amazing, we had to ride a ferry to the island and everything was very nice and quaint. While there we drove up to Amsterdam and spent the day walking around and sight seeing. We went to visit the Anne Frank House while there and learned a lot about what her and her family went through. After that, we walked down the main street of town and it was crazy. People everywhere and lots of those “special” coffee houses people talk about. On our way back from Amsterdam, we drove over to a little beach town called Nordwijk. We spent some time walking around the beach and put our feet in the cold North Sea. After the beach, we stopped to eat at one of the local restaurants and had some local cuisine. What we did not plan on was the drop in temperature by the beach; it became quite chilly.



On the island of Den Kaag.



Downtown Amsterdam


Downtown Amsterdam


Brittany and CJ walking on the beach of Nordwijk.

We departed there and went back to the island. The next morning, we rented bicycles and rode all around the island. I think this was the part we enjoyed the most and we even raced to the finish.

We all paused on the bike ride for pictures.

The next day was also the day I had to catch a flight back to Kuwait. We drove the 5 hours back to the house and prepared for me to leave again for 5 more months. Not something any of us were looking forward to.

Since I have been back, I have been trying to get back into the “groove”, but it is pretty difficult. I hope that the next few months go a little quicker.