Catching Up

I really am still around.  I just have not been training or blogging.  I finished up my civilian work the end of August and spent the month of September starting Army work and cleaning out my mother’s house in Georgia.  I have a great house for a great price if any one in the North GA area is looking. 

The first three weeks of training we did at Fort Dix, NJ were some of the best I received as an Army reservist.  It was all very professional and of the highest quality.  I was much impressed.   One of my soldiers has taken a lot of pictures and once I get copies of them I will post them and go into more detail of the type training we conducted. 

After we completed this first phase of training the leadership left for Afghanistan and Iraq.  I just completed a whirlwind tour of Kabul with stops in Bagram and Kuwait.  This was my first time back in Afghanistan since 2002 and it has really changed.  Bagram has about three times as many people as it did then and the streets of Kabul have much better cars than before.  The most amazing thing was that I only saw three burqas on women.  Based on the media reports and the Taliban violence I expected many more. 

Here is a photo of Bagram from the air.  As you can see it is pretty good sized. 

 

 

 

This is a sad little tree we decided reminded us of the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. 

 

 

 

 

Finally just a quick photo of me in front of the Pat Tillman USO in Bagram. 

I will work to get a new post out every couple of days.  I think we have the connectivity issue fixed. 

I am NOT Dead

I am not been around for a while due to a busy schedule and lack of time management.  As deployment gets closer and closer my free time gets scarcer and scarcer.  Plus my time management skills have gone out the window along with any semblance of training.  The last time I ran was 2 weeks ago in Chicago when I went to visit my sister and brother-in-law and see the Billy Joel and Elton John concert at Wrigley. 

This week I am off of work taking a class on Integrating Information Operations into the Middle East.  It has been very interesting.  The instructor is very good, having lived in the Middle East for a long time. 

Tomorrow, I plan on running and getting my fat soft self back into some shape other than round.   More tomorrow I hope.   

Cleaning Up

As the frequent reader of this blog knows my mother passed away in February.   I have been back to Georgia a few times since then in order to clean out the house and deal with the other issues.  Luckily, my mother was a organized and did not want to leave a huge mess for the kids.  When I talk with other families who have gone through the same situation I am amazed and shocked at the selfishness of the children and the parents total lack of concern the mess that the children have to deal with.  I count my brother and I very lucky in this regard.   It is also a huge help that the house was paid off years ago.  I am not in any rush to sell it. 

This weekend I was back in Georgia with the Bride for a few days to clean, pack, sell, dispose items and to see relatives.  As I was digging around in the basement I found an envelope with   newspaper clipping of things that I accomplished growing up.   I was a relatively big fish in a little pond growing up.  Which is very different than now—I am a tiny minnow in an ocean.   I am not really sure which is better, but I would not trade my life for anything.  

I ran into a number of people I haven’t seen in years and the question was always the same, “Gonna sell the house?”  “Nope,” I would reply.  “We would love to have you back here.   How can you like living in that big city?”   How can I answer that question?  I love small towns and if there was a decent job for people like the bride and I would not mind moving back.  But I can’t make the money or have the standard of living I do here.  However, I would have a bigger house.   But explaining to people that life is what you make of it can be difficult. 

Back to the envelope I found.  It was fun and some what scary reliving the life that once was.  Back in high school and then realizing that your 20th Reunion is next month.   Where the hell did the time all go.   Since leaving that small world I have lived in 3 different countries (been shot at in all of them  LOL), visited in excess of 20 countries, spent 2 years of my life in a combat zone, resided in numerous states, owned 3 houses, and been married twice.  Life has been fast and furious for me. 

The photo I have opted to share today is when I was selected for the All Area Academic Football team for 1988.  I wasn’t a great football players, being 5-8 and weighing about 140.  Plus we were not a passing team and since I was a receiver it was hard to rack up huge numbers.    I was actually a much better baseball player.  But I will share those photos later. 

I hope everyone had a great a Independence Day Weekend and got in some good mileage.  I am off again on Monday and I plan on getting in a long brick. 

You know it’s close to Independence Day in DC when…..

I had jury duty today and the trial goes into tomorrow which really messes up things at work.  However, I did want to get picked.  So many people complain about jury duty, but hell I would rather intelligent people on the jury (especially if my ass is on trial) than Judge Judy watching whiners who think the system is out to get them or they think the $30 a day is a lot of money. 

This morning I was up and at the pool.  I arrived a little late, but I was still able to get in 2200 yards.   I started out with a 350 warm up and the rest went like this:

• 5 x 100 odds hard, even easy
• 1 x 500 free
• 3 x 100 kick
• 8 x 25 sprint
• 5 x 100 free odds hard, even easy
• 4 x 25 sprint
• 150 cool down

I felt good in the water and I am always glad when we work sprints into some longer swims.  I need to work some 1000 yard plus sets in soon. 

After we left the court today, I picked up the bike and headed out for an hour ride.  I got out to Hains Point to some loops and the gates where locked.  Then it dawned on me that the 4th of July is Saturday.  They store can secure the fireworks at Hains Point.  No one can get to them and if they did, then the explosion would not really effect anything. 

On the way back I stopped to watched the planes landing at Reagan National.  I love it when the planes land from the north.  They flight right over your head.  As you can see from this photo the plane is following the Potomac and is on final  to land.  The planes come in at about 70 or 100 feet and you can feel the wind from them. 

 

 

It really is a sight to behold.  If you ever get to the DC Area make sure you stop at Gravelly Point to watch them land.   Then I looked over and got a view of the Capitol Dome.   One clear days like today it reminds that I am lucky enough to live in a pretty cool place. 

Tomorrow is back to court and then heading to Georgia to do some more work on my mother’s house.  I hope everyone has a great Independence Day and remember the real meaning.  The beer, burgers and fireworks are just a way to celebrate, they aren’t the meaning. 

Crossing the Wilson Bridge

The Woodrow Wilson crosses the Potomac River on I-95/495 as the southern point of the Washington DC beltway.    We here in the DC area have been dealing with the congestion that goes with constructing a new bridge for years now.  The old bridge was completed in 1961 and was designed to handle 75,000 cars a day and by the end of the 90’s was handing something like 200K a day.  Needless to say there was one of hell of a bottle neck.  The new bridge which was completed this year has a bike/pedestrian lane which I have been dying to traverse.

So this morning as I started my 2 hour ride, I headed down to Old Town Alexandria and across the bridge into Maryland.  The bike lane is at least 8 ft wide and handles the flow of traffic for walkers, runners, and riders very nicely.   At the apex of the bridge are a couple of stations for looking back into DC and the Alexandria waterfront.  You can watch planes lining up to land at Reagan National Airport, view the Washington Monument, and the see the dome of the US Capitol. 

After I crossed the bridge I rode over to National Harbor which a new and very large convention area.  The bride and I have been been over there for a food and wine tasting in the past and it a very impressive facitilty.  Disney is even going to be opening a hotel there sometime in the future. 

When you are coming from the Maryland side you get a very good idea of just how massive this bridge is.  The grade is not too steep but  for those us who bike in the flat lands around here,  it is nice to have a something to climb.  I then biked through Old Town and headed over to Hains Point to complete the two hour ride.  I was rather disappointed in my overall mileage.  I only did 30 or so miles in the two hours.  But riding on through Old Town with all the stop signs and then fighting with “social walkers/riders” on the Mount Vernon trail on a Saturday morning can be a real pain in the ass.  I was very happy with my hard 8 miles at Hains Point.  I was able to average close to 18mph for the 8 miles of limited traffic that makes Hains Point just a good place to ride. 

After the ride, the Bride and I headed over to the Alexandria Pool and I got in an easy 1000m of swimming.  This evening we are heading out to one of favorite restaurants and tomorrow is an hour run with running buddy.  I hope everyone had as good a Saturday as I did.