Changing Climate

Tuesday 1 May
2200

The climate here is changing. I’ve been noticing it for awhile. On 11 April we had quite a dust storm. The wind blew, and dust got into everything. There have been a couple more days like that since then. There is a sort of brown haze hanging in the sky that blocks out the sun and obscures the view. Cars drive with their headlights on. Your teeth feel gritty and it stings your eyes. Compare the two pictures below:

(Clear Weather)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58512268@N00/456711263/

(Sandstorm)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58512268@N00/456696899/

The weather has gotten steadily warmer, albeit with brief interludes of a few cooler days and some rain. Yesterday was nearly 110 degrees. The wind felt like a hair dryer in my face, or opening the oven to take out a pizza. It also blew a lot of dust, which stuck to my skin because my pores were open from the heat. The air conditioning was quite stressed, and had a hard time keeping it below 80 degrees inside. The funny part was that when coming inside from the 109.5 degree heat, 80 degrees felt quite cool!

The air conditioning maintenance contract that I worked on for over five months (I actually started on it six months ago today) was finally awarded and they have started work. It is none too soon, and several weeks later than I had hoped. But at least it got done, and now the contractors are working. We will still keep putting band-aids on the units that break down until they can get to them to do the comprehensive repair and maintenance work. But we are already seeing an improvement, and I’m sure we will continue to see steady improvement in function and efficiency, and far fewer breakdowns than we have experienced in the past.

I have been extremely busy with that and other projects, and haven’t had much time to write. But it is good to see some of the things I have been working on finally coming to fruition. Now that the weather is changing, the utilities work I’ve been doing will pay off.

The climate is changing in other ways as well. I’ve noticed for some time that small changes were taking place, mainly in the mess hall. You can see a number of cost cutting moves, clearly indicating that they are under budget pressure. The first thing I noticed was that they changed from 250 ml milk bottles to 200 ml bottles. It’s a false economy, of course, because you just take more bottles to get the same quantity of milk. But other cuts are more palpable. Many of the little extras have disappeared or been cut back. No more energy bars or Crystal Light “On the Go” packets. No more cookies, either (just last month I had remarked to someone that people at home go to Mrs. Fields and pay $1-2 for cookies like that, and we got them for free!). Not any more. No more cereal packages laid out at every meal, either – now they have much less of it, and they only put it out at breakfast. Too bad – they made good snacks, and sometimes I liked to take some at dinnertime so I didn’t have to come to the mess hall for breakfast. They used to have cans of Coke and Mountain Dew in the fridge, but those have disappeared as well.

There’s nothing to complain about – we still eat incredibly well, and there is no shortage of food. But some of the comfort items are gone, and it makes you wonder what’s next.

I read somewhere a couple of months ago that one of the cost-cutting strategies for dealing with budget shortfalls would be to curtail non-essential travel. I wonder if R&R leave is considered “non-essential”? Back in 1982 my platoon got screwed out of some cool training with the Special Forces at Bad Tolz that we were scheduled to start on 2 October. The Democrat congress was fighting with President Reagan over the budget and didn’t pass it in time. Since the new fiscal year started on 1 October, the training was cancelled due to lack of funds, and we were SOL. So it’s possible….

Soon I get to on leave. I am so ready! If I had time I’d go backpacking someplace, but I know all my kids wouldn’t want to go, so we’ll just hang out at home and I’ll take lots of walks in the woods. I am so looking forward to seeing (and smelling and hearing and feeling) an actual forest again. Here is my “walk in the woods” at Camp Arifjan:

(Greenery)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58512268@N00/475572705/

And some glimmerings of life that appeared within the couple of months:

(Flowers)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58512268@N00/475572689/

(More Flowers)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58512268@N00/475572697/

I probably won’t write again before going on leave. I am so busy with everything, and it will only be compounded as my leave approaches and I do my best to hand everything off effectively.

I am looking forward to seeing my girlfriend as well as my kids and the rest of my family. We’ll have a great time!


Mood: Upbeat
Music: Theme from “Lawrence of Arabia”