Day 327

Tomorrow morning we start packing our personal gear into the conex for the slow boat ride home. Up at 2 o'clock in the blessed a-m to get to bed about 7 pm every night. We're trying to beat the heat, but this week is a monster. It's over 100 degress by 9 every morning and only gets hotter as the day goes on. We contacted the medics and they'll be at our work site at 7 or 8 each morning with bags of saline to rehydrate us the hard way. Well, it's not the hardest way, since water can be absorbed through the colon. Butt, all things considered, I think I'd rather take a short needle in the arm than a short arm in the ...
For me it is just after 6 pm on Sunday the 23rd. On Thursday the 27th we move out of our lovely metal accomodations and into the tents. Ah, tent life. It's been nice living all alone since my room mate was sent home for back surgery. Ain't no cats around my house. Three weeks in a tent here, three days in a tent in Kuwait, barracks in Ft. McCoy, and then to Fort Living Room. Yeah; I can handle that PSC move.
The pills they gave me for my cough have a strange affect on me. First, I feel slightly doped up and drowsy. The other I think is a diaretic. I'm in the middle of the freaking desert. Do I really need to get up every 45 minutes and pee? I mean, really?!
I am beginning to notice that my fond memories of home are becoming more specific. My most reuccuring memory is from when I was on leave from Ft. Lewis, back in November 2008. I flew to Sacramento to hang with my sister for my leave, to get caught up and do brother-sister stuff. I got off of the plane and headed for baggage claim. I got on the escalator to take me to the ground floor. Standing just to the right and at the bottom of the stairs, back from them about 15 feet, was my sister. Seeing her there and and then being able to hug is the best happy memory I have of this entire deployment. One strange image I can't shake is; I'm standing on the street corner in Bismarck, at the intersection of Ninth and Main, right next to the State Bank building. I'm looking over the underpass at the Civic Center. It appears to be comforting. Why? Maybe it's because I paid my student loans off a few years ago and the building doesn't bother me. Another image I have, and this one is more pleasant, is that I am sitting at the horseshoe bar at Whitey's in East Grand Forks, MN. There is a LARGE, COLD glass of what I can only assume is HoneyWeiss sitting slightly to the left of the view, a bottle of ketchup sitting slightly to the right of the view, a white linen napkin to the right and just off-center of the view, and in the middle, on a white plate, is my order of Whitey's Homemade Onion Rings. Real plates and silverware. Real Ketchup. The best part is, for me to be there, I won't be here.