I poked my head out of my room and blinked my eyes a few times, not believing what I saw. My feet were freezing but I had to step out and touch it anyway, just to make sure - it was snow. Snow, in central Iraq!
The roads were slippery from the snow-turned-rain, and the Humvee slid, just a little, threatening to fishtail if it didn't find traction soon. Luckily for us, it did, and not a minute too soon, as we came up on a narrow bridge with only metal spanners to cross it. The orange dump truck stopped for no reason on the bridge made us nervous, but it turned out to be nothing. I don't know if it was the snow, but there seemed to be more stalled vehicles than normal - every half mile there seemed to be a guy pulled off to the side of the road, peering under his hood or just standing there. Don't stare at us too long, mister, or my friend with the large gun up there on our roof might get nervous. Trust me, you don't want that. Aside from one guy who ran when he saw us, our convoy this time was uneventful. Even the guy who ran stopped and put his hands up when we fired a warning at him.
Life in the IZ is quiet. Most of my IRR friends are on leave, but a few are still around, and I love catching up with them. I finally got my last project approved for funding, to the tune of $10 million. It's so easy to spend money over here . . . I really hope when I go back to my regular job I can get a realistic expectation of spending back. I guess it doesn't matter, because in a few years, I'm sure this will just seem like a bad dream anyway.
Friday, January 11, 2008
slip and slide
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7 comments:
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 01/11/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.
CNN had a cute article about the snow in Baghdad. Amazing to think some people have gone thier entire lives and never seen snow fall. Frankly, I hate the stuff, but I'm sure it was a nice change for you.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/11/iraq.snow.ap/index.html
It will, trust me....two tours with the last being two years ago, seems like forever ago....kids and dogs make up for it dude.
CPT DeCecco,
I am sure the snow was not of the high German quality that we enjoyed in Garmisch the other day.
See you in a few days and I will drink a hefeweizen in your honor tonite at the bar!!
TS
Well I am sure that the snow also isn't the high quality lake effect snow that we know about on Fort Drum...
Mr. Huggins
It's so weird that it's snowing there but here in the states, in the middle of January, it's like 60 degrees.
Meg - I agree, although being a guy prevents me from refering to an article as cute.
Ex-O - I had just started to forget about A-stan before this deployment, so I hope kids will the do trick for this one :-)
Er pichi - sir - see ya soon!
huggins - I remember that lake effect well!!
maxie - wanna trade places?
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