Snake!!

In the middle of the winter I’m so frustrated
And I can’t wait till Summer to see you again
I think maybe my angels have been overrated
They seem more like my keepers and less like my friends
-The Weekenders, Start to Rain

We have been working nonstop. Very little sleep. The war doesn’t go to bed just because it gets dark. I am kind of impressed with everybody in my platoon; we have gone for nine straight weeks now without a day off. We’ve slept late a couple days, but those were days in Kuwait and up near Tikrit when we were in transit and didn’t really have anything to do. Nobody complains, though. That is, no more than normal. I am kind of in awe of a lot of these guys. They take extremely stressful challenges in stride. I am always thinking that civilian employers are crazy not to recruit largely from the veteran pool. So you’ve got a high-stress, eighty-hour-a-week job with lots of deadlines and late nights? No problem. Most of these guys would eat it up with a spoon. I can hear them now: “At least I’m not getting shot at.”

I have received a lot of packages. Thank you to everybody. I love them. Especially the barbecue sauce. We’ve got a grill now, but we’re building a smoker too, so we can make good Texas brisket. I’m going to the logistics base in a couple days, and I’m gonna buy charcoal and cooking implements at the PX. We had a cookout the other day, and we had to use a fork to turn the meat. They apparently also sell actual barbecue meat at the PX, so I’m gonna check that out too.

My best friend sent me the first draft of a book he and his sister wrote. It’s very good. They are still fine-tuning it, tweaking the plot a little and so forth, looking for holes, but it is already great. Very entertaining. I realized he writes like I do: the exact same way he speaks. Anyway, it got me off my ass and I wrote another synopsis last night when I had some time. I’ve got Jen sending me lots of info on Sumerian mythology, tectonic plates, natural disasters, etc. I never realized how much flavor it adds to writing to do some research first. I am very grateful to her for finding this stuff. I know she went through hell to find me an electronic version of the complete Apocrypha all in one file.

I’m planning a road trip with my friend when I get home. Not right away, but at some point, probably in the spring of 07, we’ll meet somewhere and just tool around the country for a couple of days. I always come away from intellectual discussions with him so refreshed. Inspired, too. We bounce story ideas off each other, and help each other refine them. Apparently Wilde and his buddies did this, and apparently Tim Powers and Phillip K. Dick used to always go drinking and talk about their ideas. And they’re the two finest science fiction writers ever.

Jen and I were talking about what we’re doing leave-wise when I get home, and we’re thinking we’ll go see our families for Thanksgiving (assuming I haven’t been extended) and spend Christmas at home. I like the idea of Christmas in my house. It’ll be my first one there. I love my new house; I’m kind of sad that I’ll be away from it for this first holiday season.

I got a length of black hose and spray-painted yellow stripes on it. I’ve got an NCO that is terrified of snakes. You know how, with some little girls, you can say “hey, there’s a bug!” and point at them, and they’ll shriek and start swatting at themselves, and it works every time? He is that bad, but with snakes. Anyway, I put it in the shadow by his bed. I think some of the other guys in the bunker gave away that something was up, and he didn’t seem too scared. He wasn’t sure who it was, so I tried to take the opportunity to start a prank war by putting a plastic skull left over from Halloween in another guy’s bed. You know, Pancho Villa strategy. Well, they both figured out it was me, and so now I’m kind of edgy, expecting them to pull something at any moment. I need one of those prank books.

Well, I’ve got a big boring meeting tomorrow, so I have to go to sleep. Good game this last weekend. Almost had it.