8-10 August

August 8


I finished my work for this trip by lunch time, so the rest of the day was mine to enjoy. How did I spend it you ask? Well I did a two hour cardio workout. Did the elliptical for 45 minutes, followed by the bike for 20 minutes, back to the elliptical for 45, and finished on the bike with 10 minutes to make an even two hours. It surprised to me that I felt pretty good after it.

The evening was spent Skyping with Jenn and watching her feed Emma with a spoon for the first time. It was just watered down rice cereal, but the face Emma had was priceless. She seemed so confused, but yet intrigued by the whole experience. She’s our little chubby baby, so I’m sure she will enjoy eating real food. It was awesome to get to be a part of such a milestone. I don’t know who invented Skype, but I will give them a huge hug if I ever meet them.

I’m heading to bed with the hopes of getting a flight tomorrow. If my master plan works as I hope I will be eating lunch back at FOB Ghazni.

August 9

All good plans seem to disappoint. A helicopter didn’t show as planned so I spent an extra day here. To be honest I don’t mind spending some extra time at this FOB. It may be small, but I always seem to have great workouts. I went to the gym twice today. This morning I did weights and then another marathon cardio workout in the afternoon. Two more hours split between the bike and elliptical machine.

I got a lesson in cricket from the local Afghanies that stay on the FOB. It’s very similar to baseball with some interesting twists. I was going to try and do a little batting practice tomorrow, but I’m hoping to get a flight in the morning. If not that gives me something to look forward to.

One thing I noticed today is that it seems mandatory for Army soldiers to have tattoos. I know they are popular for people of all walks of life, but every single soldier seems to have multiple. And to be quite honest, some of them are just stupid. One guy has “Death” written on his forearm. That wouldn’t disturb me so much except he is one of the cooks. I don’t want someone so fond of death cooking my food. Another guy is from Boston and has the Red Sox “B” tattooed on his neck. That may be great as a soldier, but good luck getting a good job when you get out. I’ve seen praying hands, pictures of people’s mothers, and some that I just don’t even know what they are. Maybe I’m missing something, but I think I’ll stay tatooless for a little while longer.

August 10

Have you ever jumped on a bus, train, subway, exit ramp, etc and wondered “I hope this gets me to where I’m going”? Well, today was like that. There was one helicopter coming to the FOB where I was staying. When these helicopters come they basically touch the ground, a guy hops out the back and you follow him onto the chopper and you are in the air. The helicopter is on the ground for less than three minutes. This helicopter landed, I jumped on and away we went. Once we were in the air I asked the guy if we were heading to FOB Ghazni which is of course my temporary home. He looked at me and said “Nope.” So here I am on a helicopter flying over Afghanistan and NOT going to where I want. So I looked at him again and said “where are we going?” His response was simply “A few places.” I followed up with “What’s the biggest FOB we are going to?” When he said FOB Sharana I simply replied “Close enough.”

So here I now sit at another FOB hoping to get on a flight tomorrow. I arrived in just enough time to make the schedule for tomorrow. And since this is more of a hub than my other places I am pretty confident I’ll get to Ghazni tomorrow. But until then I will enjoy the luxury that is FOB Sharana.

The first thing I did was have lunch which included salad. Back in the states Jenn always made salad with dinner. We would disagree if salad was a vegetable or not. But being in the remote FOBs that I stay at we don’t get salad mainly because the lettuce never survives the trip. So I loaded up with a bunch of salad and did the same thing at dinner too. It’s amazing how you find enjoyment in joys as small as salad.

I was also able to go to the PX/BX which for those that don’t know is a store. It’s not very big here but we don’t have any American stores on Ghazni. All we have are “hajji shops” which are run by Afghanies and have limited selection and are overpriced. There isn’t much I need, but I did load up on some nutritional supplements. Heck if I’m going to work out this much I’m going to make sure I produce results.

Next was the gym. I know I go to the gym almost every day, but this gym is so much bigger and nicer. Since I had the whole afternoon I did some weights and then another two hour cardio session. But this gym had treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, and a row machine. I was able to really mix it up compared to normal. I’ll tell you that after 30 minutes on a row machine, when you are not used to it, will make muscles that you didn’t know you had sore. So I did 35 minutes running on the treadmill, 35 minutes on the elliptical, 10 minutes of fast ab work, 30 minutes on the row machine, and capped it off with 10 more minutes on the elliptical so I could brag about two hours total. If I don’t look good when I get back home then there is no hope for me.