The Mummy Returns

so as promised. here are the pics of our first real sandstorm. sure, there have been dust storms and little mini sandstorms where all this shit gets in your eyes and your contacts burn like hell(but shhhh...we're not supposed to wear contacts out here). those are pretty sucky, too, but this, this was the first one that i was fairly impressed with. sand all over the place. barely can see anything. barely can even open your eyes in fact, and that's WITH glasses on! it didn't last too too long though and that's def a good thing.

another month has gone by so 2 down and 5 to go. 150 days. i compare days with the other docs and we all have different timeframes. misery loves company i guess, and most of us got here about the same time, but there are a few who got here a ways before we did and so we're all jealous of them. but i just spoke with harvard j today and i found out that he's coming here this september so i'm pretty psyched about that. it will be nice to have a good friend on base even if our overlap will only be one month. gives me something to look forward to.

btw, i'm really sorry i don't respond to all of your comments on the blog. the internet is so slow that it pretty much blows to be on. took frickin' forever just for those 3 images. anyway, i promise to try to do a better job keeping in touch. thanks again for visiting and for leaving your comments. they really do mean a lot.

Butterbar no more

just a quick shout out to our sole 2nd lt who just got promoted a couple of days ago. the lowest ranking officer has one gold bar on his collar and so it's called a butterbar and now we don't have one anymore. poor kid was the squadron bitch and got assigned all the mini taskers that other officers did not really want to do. things like designing tshirts and fundraising and all that jazz. but he's a sport and took it all in stride. not too much changed, though, since now he's still the junior ranking officer. at least he gets a pay raise. here's to you, sculls, or should i say, 1st lt scully.

we had a fairly nasty sand storm the other day and i took some pics so hopefully they turned out ok and i'll post as soon as i can start downloading. nice new camera from home, but they forgot the cable...heheheh...oh well...it'll come soon enough! about to start giving another round of shots so this time i'm getting the straws ready so that i can tell these guys to suck it up once they start crying and whining again. bunch of wimps.

oops, bus to work is about to leave so i'm out. stupid slow internet. pops, thanks for the answering machine and the alarm clock! you are awesome!

It's Gettin' HOT in Here

just over 10 days since i've last updated my blog and i feel like such a slacker. i wish i could say that it's been 10 fun-filled exciting days, but nope, not much has happened. after returning from al asad, i spent most of last week holding a shot fair and giving everyone in the squadron their vaccinations. amazing how a bunch of tough, hard-core marines turn into crying and whining babies at the sight of a tiny sub-q shot in the arm (arms that are bigger than my head, i might add). but there was no escape and i do have to admit that i did take some pleasure in giving them their little prick in the arm. maybe it's the fact that we've been out here about two months now, but everyone's starting to get on everyone else's nerves (or is it that everyone is just getting on mine?). all the taskers and the micromanaging....it's outta control and so so annoying. some of you have already gotten my bitching so i'm sorry you have to read about it again but all these little things that they want done (for seemingly no other reason than to be able to say we've done it) really chap my hide. i do more bullshit admin that i do medical care! and the heat isn't helping. they said that one day it would be like someone turned on the oven and that's exactly what happened. it's been frickin' hot and sandy and nasty. mostly in the 110's. hasn't hit 120 yet, but we all know it's coming.

i sorta feel bad feeling this way considering this is my first (and hopefully only) deployment and some of these guys here are on trip 4 or even 5. i can't even imagine. the same ppl, day in, day out, 24/7, 7 days a week for 7 months....that's prolly what drives you nuts. makes me realize how nice it was for me to have had those few days away in al asad.

thanks to all for coming by to visit the blog. will try to do a better job staying up to date and will def get more pics up. stupid camera broke during my trip and so haven't been able to upload any more pics. talk to you soon. if you're ever bored...drop me an email!

Al Asad and back again

i spent most of last week on a short trip to al asad. the travel was a bitch and i was exhausted but it was so nice to get away and to visit another base. took 8 hours to get there and 6 to get back even though it's a 45 minute helo ride but it was worth it. that place is huge and it's not called camp cupcake without reason. they have a pool, pizza hut, bk, a ginormous exchange...pretty much the works for out here. i was fairly impressed.

i gave a 3 hour brief and that was a huge pain in the ass. if i can get on my soapbox again, it was pretty annoying to give a presentation to people who you are trying to educate but who aren't willing to listen. again with the thinking that rank equates to extreme and superior knowledge and power. it was disappointing to think that that's how some people operate but that's what they do and unfortunately it prolly won't change. but i also got to chill for a couple of days after it was over so that was pretty cool.

and of course, i got to hang with fister. it's always nice to see familiar faces out here (it's a pretty small military world), and it was GREAT to see a good friend again. we didn't do much. talked, shared stories, mutual bitching about how sucky things (and people) are....it was pretty awesome.

only thing i regret is that my flights were at night (for fairly obvious reasons) so i didn't get a chance to see the countryside. i mean, this is such a historical region of the world (which is prolly why it's also so filled with strife) that it would have been incredible to just take a look across the land. perchance one of these days, i'll get the opportunity. harvard j is coming out to al asad later this year...that would be just awesome to see him as well.

Groundhog Day in May

it seems every day is groundhog day in these parts. another saturday has come again and not much different today. long day yesterday so i thought i'd try sleeping in again. i turned off my alarm clock only to wake up anyway at 0645. i guess that's what happens when you get older. gets harder and harder to sleep in. i am taking my time going in to work which is why i can write right now. i'm trying to find random times to hit the internet cafe and it seems to work as the connection is much faster and i don't have as much trouble uploading pics. ah to go back to wireless again. amazing how quickly you forget how annoying a slow connection really really is.

i haven't been checking my donut of misery lately, but this blog sorta does a pretty good job tracking the time. before i know it, it's been a few days since i've posted and a weekend is here again. it's pretty nice actually, because all the time goes by relatively fast, the days go pretty slow and i've prolly said it before, but it really feels like i've been here forever. starting to warm up, too!

mrs. sooch, mr. & mrs. p, thanks so much for the packages and even more so, thanks for thinking of me. dr. b, thanks for the card and thanks for just letting me know what's going on in your lives...really is nice to hear.

the pic above is from the c-130 ride from kuwait to iraq. funstuff, eh?

Just call me Professor

today was the first day of my intro to psychology class, and although brief, i have to say i think it went quite well. i mentioned before that i'm teaching a couple of college courses to my marines through a local university's deployment education program and i must say it's kinda cool. haven't really taught anything in a while and it's nice to have a new thing to do.

i also had to school a couple of the other officers in how to handle questionable medical situations, too. pretty simple, actually....call the medical officer! it's prolly worse in a real aviation community but a lot of these folks really believe that with their rank they can diagnose and treat all that ails them, whether it be physical (suck it up devil dog!) or mental (this guy's crazy, he needs to be kicked out of the military!). we had a young marine who's having some problems here and his shop was able to recognize that fact and approached him about it which is great. they knew to look for me, but since i wasn't around, instead of trying to find me, they go ahead and decide he's pretty much good to go and say so when i ask them later what they needed me for. now that would be fine and dandy except for the fact that he wasn't good to go and came to me expressing so. i talked to his shop again today and they reemphasized that they solved the problem when they really had no clue as to what's going on.

i guess it's a fine line i have yet to master between protecting my patients' rights (which i believe to be paramount) and balancing it with protecting the mission of the command (which is why we're even here in the first place!). i sort of go by a need-to-know basis, but i'm deciding when i feel skipper needs to know something and it's a little dangerous cause while fairly in the loop, i don't always know how a marine's health status may affect the evolution of our work here. right now, it's a risk i'm willing to take, i guess.

and that pic up there? it's the courtyard of the alamo from my doorway. nope, don't live at the office on the flightline. we have this old building affectionly called the alamo where the officers and staff nco's stay. it's actually not bad. i'll post pics of my room next.