Whichy whatevery

Supriiiiise! He's actually read the blogger and posting. I've connected my wireless from my roommate's computer, so now I don't have the 30 min time limit to talk to friends in ym, check email accounts, do online banking, etc. However, sometimes it's down. I figured I better take advantage of a day without a misison and while the inet's up. I've been meaning to type up something on my laptop, save it to my thumb drive and upload it at the inet cafe, but been busy/tired.

Tuesday evening we escorted 26 trucks up to Baghdad, arriving around 2am. I was still wired from Red Bull, chocolate and adrenaline. The route's been busy with IED's and small arms for a week or so, so I was pretty wired. Luckily, the trip was uneventful. We stayed up, smoking and joking until almost 6am Wed morning. I called Michelle's sister, Dianna, to tell her happy birthday. Plus, she had some kind of procedure where they were checking for throat cancer. The doctor said it looked alot better than the previous visit and she'd learn more at her next appt. Came back down here Wed night and got in early Thurs morning. Had to sit in the middle of the road while the civilians changed one of the trucks' tires, right in the area where alot of the attacks have happened in the past. Yeah, that was fun, especially when you're the gunner and popped up through the hole in roof. Oh, you've never lived until you have peed in a gatorade bottle, facing backward, doing 60 mph at midnight sticking up through a hole in the roof of a humvee..LMAO! (Laugh My A** Off)

Luckily, we just get thrown n the mix when there's a surge in convoys to go north. We've had a few days of dust storms a week or so ago, so they were playing catch up because no traffic rolls for lack of air/medevac cover. We've been out bouncing around the local villages and farms, dealing with sheiks and putting in potable water tanks and road improvement projects. Coming up in a week or so we have another "Med Cap", where soldiers from our medical company conduct a free med clinic at a school for the local village. All the villages want us to build them med clinics, but the ministry of health said they can't afford to support or staff so many clinics, so we do med caps about once a month. My platoon provides perimeter security. Luckily, I'm usually a gunner, so I don't have to deal with the "meesta meesta, gimme" kids.

The other day we went 2 1/2 hours south to Basra to pick up some money to pay the local contractors for projects. A car rolled up on us, I was rear gunner that day, ignored my hand signals for him to back off and the flare I fired at him, so I had to shoot his tire out. It was a Capris. They pulled over and both front doors opened, so I guess everyone was okay. They should've backed off.

We're less than 50 days from going home. We've sat through most of our mandatory redeployment briefs and started doing inventories. Our replacements from Minnesota aren't here yet. I have a feeling we'll be running missions up to the end. I'm so ready to get home.

Oh, I was born 27 October 73, in Norfolk General. I think it was at 10:11pm, right Mom? I don't know how big I was, but Chelley loves that I was a bald baby. I think I remember hearing that if I wasn't born then, they were gonna' induce Mom on Halloween. That's all I know; that and that Dad kissed Mom and then she had me. ~laughs~ Oh, another update. I now listen to Johnny Cash and have ripped a bunch of his music to my computer. Chelley gave me the complete set of Hee Haw DVD's for Christmas. Somebody let Granddaddy know that I watch hee haw again and listen to Johnny Cash. I think he'll get a kick out of that. But don't tell him what they do to donkeys and cows around here is worse than me riding pigs. I've seen the video feeds from our remote control planes. Everyone take care.

Chris