Working Out

Nov 6

Okay, I'm not in as good a shape as I thought I was...or CPT Kim was right. I walked with a patrol to the Agriculture Center a couple of days ago. It was around a 5 mile hike and I made it there and back in fine form despite the damn vest and helmet! We even stopped at the local bazaar (market) on the way home and got naan and pomegranates...the fresh naan was great! The CPT suggested that I lay down for a rest after the mission and I promptly fell asleep for, basically the rest of the day! I did get up for dinner, but was in the rack by 8 or 8:30 pm! It was an interesting walk, MJR Reyes was my hiking buddy for most of the trip; he is a great guy with a sense of humor that never seems to be much dimmed. We talked about a range of topics and he made the trip seem short. Our mission was to give three Afghan vocational trainers a tour of the facility so they could rotate 90 students through the Ag. Ctr. and be trained in masonry and carpentry. They drove their station wagon to the place...we walked. The walk was around the perimeter of the FOB and through some fallow land passing by local cemeteries and homes...but not too close. The biggest 'surprise' was as we were entering the gate for the FOB, right near the bazaar one of the ANP guards accidentally discharged a round from his gun...not pointed anywhere near us and we could hear his superior officer reaming him out...I thought it was a car backfiring. The acronym for this is ND which stands for negligent discharge and the US Army troops are continuously trained to avoid this...to the point that we have checkpoints upon entering the FOB where the officer in charge has to see everyone with a weapon and they have to prove that the chamber of the weapon is 'amber' not 'red'. Amber means that the magazine is in the weapon, but a round isn't in the chamber, red means that a round is in the chamber and all that has to be done is to remove the safety and pull the trigger.

I went to the 'little gym' last night. Had a nice cardio workout on the Stairmaster and elliptical trainer for around 15 minutes each. I did some sit ups with the CPT and the others from my tent. The CPT invited me over to her tent to watch a movie with her bunkmates and have some tea...I never made it. Partially out of being tired and mostly out of having the beginnings of a cold...lots of tissues and I'm feeling marginally better today.

I'm going to try to work out for an hour, or so, every other night and see if I can bring home a 'new me'. I think I'm down almost 10 pounds...or at least I've shifted some fat into muscle. It is hard to tell...I'm using a dryer for my clothes and the shirts are shrinking a bit with each run through the dryer. My belt is at least 2" into new territory though.

The box of umbilical clamps arrived! It has about 1000 in it. Great job BarbQ! We packed another 150 kits yesterday ...I think it is fun the rest of the guys think it is a pain... Maybe they have done too many of them ...I like the production of organizing and packing kits like this.

Have a great day! Love, -Jim-