If you haven’t figured it out from my disclaimer at the bottom of the page, I’m a biker. The boss however is a sailor, i.e he races sailboats. He will probably give me a good ribbing over the use of the above post title both because I’m probably ‘out of my depth’, and he might disagree that we’re in a rut. Last weeks post had truck 3 literally in a rut, but this week it’s mostly just me. However, unlike a sailboat stuck on the wide water with no wind and no real reference points during the middle of the day, we as humans can recognize the mental ruts and do something about it. I got a little depressed that we’re just spinning our wheels with our counterparts, but a couple of good “Inshaallahs”(Arabic word meaning “If God Wills It”) and I felt better.
While I’ve got some good pics from this week, the 1 week delay means I get to post the mixed bag from last week. The first pair are a highlight of our S4, and his ability to get us good gear. We got M24 binos from the last team, and while they’re better than nothing, they leave a lot to be desired. In some weird karmic twist, CPT Ryan ordered the exact model I was thinking about as an upgrade, Bushnell 10x50s. The following two pictures are from my turret, the first is camera only, max zoom. The second is camera through one side of the binos, still at max camera zoom. The 50mm objective lenses gather enough light that you can even use them in front of night optics for some serious long-range night observation. Most excellent.
Next we have some more improvements in the ongoing local area beautification project. The boss and I were pretty much baking in the afternoons, as our two front windows were bleeding in enough heat to overwhelm our AC unit. A little camo netting and some spray paint, and voila! Instead of setting the AC at 18* C and praying, now it’s at 22*, and holds the temperature down all day. Also, one of our interpreters got some rosebushes and we’ve ’emplaced’ them in various ‘flowerpots’ around the CHU area. One already bloomed, but I didn’t get a picture of it. I’ll have to be better about that when the next one does.
Finally, thanks to SFC Shuck’s wife, we got some marshmallows in the mail. Well we would be remiss to not send photos of those being put to good use at the firepit, so here one is:
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