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Monday, January 12, 2009
this page last modified on Sunday, January 11, 2009
A few days ago, I believed it was actually getting warmer here. There were a few pleasant days in a row. But yesterday, we had some crazy weather. The morning was actually warm and I went for a four-mile walk at lunchtime. But at Al Asad Airbase (which is only 100 miles away or so), they were predicting snow and small airplanes were grounded because the conditions were perfect for aircraft icing.
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The rain cleaned our otherwise dirty truck
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Then, just after lunch, the temperature dropped 17 degrees in an hour (no kidding) and it started to rain. It felt as if it could snow here, too. You'd think that rain would be a welcome relief in a desert, but it was not at all pleasant. It was cold, windy, on the verge of sleeting and everywhere you went: MUD. Mud like you've never seen before. The sand here is not granular, like beach sand. It's a fine power that turns to a sticky, sludge-like paste when it rains. All the floors of all buildings were covered in mud. The roads were mud, the parking lots were mud, the dust-covered cars became mud-covered cars.
It was a miserable walk home and a miserable walk to chow last night. At chow, I actually had to consider how thirsty I was against my intense desire to NOT have to get up in the middle of night and walk to a port-o-pottie. Some of the Marines here just pee in bottles at night so they don't have to walk outside. It sounds gross, but when you get up at midnight, and there's sleet and wind, and you to have to walk to a cold potty, you'd consider almost any alternative.
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Our other truck is a muddy mess
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Today, the rain has stopped, but it's near freezing and it's still muddy.
Do I complain about the cold too much? Am I a warm-blooded pussy? Absolutely. Everyone here dreads the summer, but I used to drive across the Sonoran Desert in the summer with no air conditioning, and I loved it. So we'll see who the pussies are in a few months. I look forward to being warm. I've been awake now today for four hours, and my feet are still frozen. Oh, a Marine gave me a new pair of boots, just in time for the mud.
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I never would have guessed I'd see puddles in Iraq
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