Update 17- February 26, 2007

Band of Brothers? Or Office Space?
This is my favorite mountain here. It is this little tiny thing (relatively) sitting in the shadow of all these monsters. It is like the Wilbur of the mountain range, but I say it is “SOME MOUNTAIN.”

I don’t think that I ever provided a picture of where I live, but this is a B-Hut with the back of a Toyota Prado, which is my vehicle while I am here, and like I told you before, they are all stickshift.

Well, I am doing much better with the driving (down to 1 stall-out a week), but there really is a learning curve, and for some, it is steeper than for others. One of my co-workers, while trying to get into a parking spot, ran into port-a-potty. That would be bad enough, but the #1 Bossman, the CEO of our unit was inside it. She did not knock it over, but definitely jostled it pretty good. These are the dangers of learning stick. She has not driven since.

For as much as I am in a “warzone” here, it is really more like Office Space than Band of Brothers. Getting along with co-workers. Trying to keep hold of your stapler. The only difference is that no one ever has a “case of the Mondays” since you are never coming back from a weekend away from work. However, one thing that reminds you where you are sometimes is when they detonate land mines.
The engineers are always doing mine clearing here and there is supposed to be an announcement over the PA. Sometimes it goes, “there will be a controlled detonation”, then BOOM! But other times the explosion happens first and you go, “What the &$#@ was THAT?” but that only lasted like 2 weeks before you just say “One down, 8 million to go.” and go back to work. I am still waiting for someone to say “Oh! Excuse Me! Must have been that BEAN I ate.”

Lest you think that I am in any danger, let me assure you that the only thing getting assaulted here is my sense of smell. Let me explain. There are three types of water here. Black, gray and potable. Potable, is what you can drink and wash with. Gray is used shower water, dishwater and stuff like that. Blackwater is what you get from port-a-johns. All of it has to go somewhere, and because our site is on the unlucky part of base, we are downwind from the blackwater dump site. When the wind is right, it is just so wrong. And if this is what it is like in the winter, I am glad that one guy from update #6 recommended bringing scented candles along for the summer.

So, in some things you have more choices here, for example, Diet Coke. Here, there are two varieties- the one in the black can and the one in the silver can. I have not determined if there is any difference, but I am planning a blind taste test. Maybe it is all the leftover “New [Diet] Coke” or maybe it is like Coke Dry and Coke Ice. Is Coca Cola owned by Anheuser Busch?

However, there are some things that have much fewer options. Like the radio stations. Here, there are three. Country, what seems to be the Slow-Jams station as that is all I have ever heard playing on it, and the rock station that changes to rap every so often with no discernible pattern. I wonder if Sirius is an option here.

Hasta luego, -Pat