Deployment to Sather AB, Iraq - 8

Hello All. Hope you are well today. I am not, LOL! I'm sick as hell with what we call the Sather Sludge (cold and flu type crap)! I'm 3 days into antibiotics, so its getting better.

Well, the Iraqi elections came and went and all was relatively peaceful. Not much to report in the way of casualties. It was worse on the civilian side and alot of ativity in Tikrit, which, if you don't know, was Saddam's hometown, but then they always get frisky over there! Its the most worthless town on this earth, by far! But, we survived just fine and only minimal sounds of fireworks.

And the Super Bowl is tonight. A bit of breakdown from someone who knows football: Pittsburgh is going to take this as long as Big Ben doesn't choke and their defense shuts down the running game of the Cardinals, which they will in a big way! The cardinals will be lucky to rush for 50 yards on the night. Without it, they will wish they had Payton Manning slinging it instead of Kurt Warner! Pittsburgh by a 10 point margin in the win! :) We will be having a SB party here on Sather, but ours is at 1 am about 10 hours ahead of ya'll. We'll be watching it at the same time but just at different times, if that makes sense!

Lets see, what else. There are people waiting on computers so I have to be brief here this time. The weather is about the same except that its getting more and more windy, consistent with the summer season where we will see an increase in dust storms. We call them Shmauls here in Iraq, cuz...thats what they are called here. They can get pretty nasty! If you haven't seen pics of it, I'll try to get some running for ya! Yeah, you ain't seen duststorms till you get a load of these! We'll get em soon, for sure!

The schedule for us Medics will be changing soon to 24 hours on and off hopefully. That will make it more consistent and allow us to have a more even hand when it comes to sleep and other activities like the gym and errands, some of which, like sleep, we have not been able to do just yet! Everyone likes the idea, except for the Chief Nurse, who gets to approve it before it becomes law. She has, I don't mind saying, been about as worthless in work as she has been in thinking. When its really busy, she thinks its more important to catch people in action and take pictures than to help out! I have almost killed her and hidden the body many times! Pretty soon, she will either put up or shut up and I will enjoy going over her head again to the Commander if she disapproves this schedule! She really has become unnecessary in the grand scheme of things here at the hospital!

I am joining a smoking cessation class this coming week, so I can be in an even WORSE mood than I already have been! LOL! It'll be interesting to see if it works. I have tried to quit smoking several times and it never lasted obviously, but, we'll see. There is actually alot of support here for people who want to quit, so maybe it'll be easier. I will keep you informed of that! :)

I better go. The natives are growing restless! Ya'll enjoy the Super Bowl or whatever activity replaces it and I will say more later. Next time we will discuss the burning question: Are we making a difference here in Iraq? Yes, we sure are, and I will explain how that is.

Peace!
Ricky