Teasing my daughter from afar!

After seeing the following on our whiteboard, I could not resist getting Morgan riled up, even though it is well past April 1st!

For those of you who know Morgan, you probably know what a Taylor Swift fan (fanatic actually) she is.  So, when I saw the above on our whiteboard, I knew I had to send her the pictures!  I sent it early in the morning (AZ time, knowing she would see it the minute she woke up).  Steph happened to be up early, and warned me that it would probably get Morgan riled up.  Sure enough, Morgan quickly responded to my What's App family text and pics with "OMG's" and requests for autographs!  I did not make her suffer long, and pointed out that she should carefully read the caption above the notice (see closeup below). 

She did not notice the "RUMOR OF THE DAY!" notice at the top.  I only wish it were true that they were coming here (more for Ed Sheeran although I hear from Morgan that T Swift is great in concert).  Nevertheless, it was entertaining being able to tease my daughter from the other side of the world.  She was a great sport in allowing me to do so- THANK YOU MORGAN!

Hopefully we will get some entertainment from the USO here but I will not hold my breath as it is a small base.  I was spoiled in Afghanistan getting to meet Jordan Sparks (who is from AZ and my dad was actually her dad's dentist at one time- small world!).  We will see.  In the meantime, I will keep busy training, teaching, reading, working out, and sleeping (more on the teaching soon:).

IRAQ..............finally!

Finally.  Arrived in Iraq a little over a week ago.  Obviously not first class seats on the flight over from Kuwait J!  (It was so hot without any air circulation that I was happy to be sitting next to one of my corpsmen who happened to be fanning herself.  Needless to say, I “joined in.”).  We arrived safely, however, and were glad to leave the oppressive heat in Kuwait.  It is actually much cooler here at our base in Iraq- similar to Phoenix but it actually cools off at night (allowing for my nice cool runs at 0430 every morning). 

 

We had a few days with the outgoing group to complete our turnover and orient us to the base and our tent hospital and our jobs.  Despite the outgoing group not being very busy the last few months, we were fortunate to actually have a real patient during our turnover which allowed us to learn how things worked here with a real patient and how to “dispo” (come up with a final disposition) our patients.  The outgoing group was very glad that we are here now, allowing them to return to their families after a long separation. 

 

Our accommodations, although certainly spartan, ended up better than I thought.  Although we were packed 3 and 4 to a room initially during turnover with the outgoing hospital group, we got to go down to 2 per room for a few of the senior officers and leadership, and 3 per room for most others.  As a senior officer, I got two to a room.  My roommate is one of the other 0-5’s here, an orthopedic surgeon.  We live in a large tent, about 150 feet by 35 feet, surrounded by 12 foot concrete walls (“T–walls”). There is a corridor going down the middle with 10 “rooms” on each side.  The “rooms” are created with plywood and 2x4’s reaching about 7 feet high.  The floors are plywood covered in carpet.  Definitely better than I expected with air conditioning and outlets for all of us.  I have a semi-private “bedroom” (that I share with the A/C unit) and a small “living room” that is large enough to do my Yoga-X in.  We have shower “trailers” outside and porta johns.  Although porta johns are never nice and ours are very hot after about 0700, they are definitely the cleanest ones I have ever used (the contractors clean them and stock the TP twice a day).  Overall, much better than expected.

 

 

 

I got to enjoy Father’s Day at the gym, which is where I spend over a third of my waking moments.  They actually have two gyms, one is a weight gym and the other is cardio, with bikes, ellipticals, treadmills, spin bikes, and room for fitness classes (more on the last two in the next installment).

 

 

I also got to enjoy our 28^th Anniversary back home with family for a lovely dinner.  Well……… at least “Flat Brad” did J.  More on life at Q-West in the next installment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

MORE (training and travel, that is:)

So I made it to the Middle East, but still more travel and training was to be had before arriving at my final base/hospital in Iraq.  We had more than a week stopover in Kuwait.  Luckily, they have really built up our bases in Kuwait since the Gulf War and even since my last stop there in 2012 on my way back from Afghanistan.  Although we had to stay there over a week, we did very little paperwork and training (but the lecture by the Army Reserve Veterinarian on taking care of Military Working Dogs was excellent!)

We were able to celebrate a 50th birthday party (no, not mine YET) in the DFAC (aka dining facility) complete with candles on a (piece of) cake.  Probably not "technically allowed," in the DFAC but very fun and even the staff came over and helped us sing Happy Birthday (I think they thought it was like a TGI Friday restaurant or something).  They even served beer in the DFAC, although the non-alcoholic kind (O'douls- which I hate).   I had to have one, though, just to get a picture.  I was obviously the only one "drinking" at lunch and probably the only one who had even had an O'douls in the last 6 months in the DFAC!

They did, however, have beautiful sunrises (shown) and sunsets, although these were due to the ridiculous amount of dust in the air.  You could actually safely stare straight at the sun at sunrise and sunset without protective eyewear (at least I think it was safe :).

Most importantly, though, they had an amazing gym, a movie theater (that showed first run movies), and even a pool to help pass the time "productively."  I was able to do three-a-day workouts, including morning and evening run/swims with some elliptical, lifting, and P90X spaced out in between the two every day.  I even got to see four movies, including Ocean's 8, Adrift, Action Point, and Breaking In.  We left right before I got to try a spin class, though, which made me sad (it took me a while to find out where and when the classes were :(  The pool was AMAZING!  Now, off to Iraq!

 

TRAINING (and travel:)

I realize I have been a little "behind" in getting these out. Connectivity has been an issue.  Will get caught up once settled on base in Iraq at Q-West (we often lovingly refer to it as "Key West" :)

 

After my adventure began May 6th, we had paperwork and gear/uniform issue for a week on the east coast followed by training at Ft Bliss in beautiful El Paso, TX.  What sort of training you might ask?  In the words of Bill Murray in "Stripes"...………… ARMY TRAINING, SIR!!!!  I did get to become a licensed MRAP driver, though, as well as get "familiar" with the 50 caliber machine gun or "Ma Deuce." 

 

 

 

We got to see a couple of movies (Deadpool 2 and Solo) during our down time and even went golfing on Memorial Day!

 

 

 

In transit from Ft Bliss, we got a layover in Bangor, Maine, where my buddy Mark (a fellow Navy Reserve ER doc who lives there) picked us up at our hotel and drove by Stephen King's house on our way to an unbelievable view and seafood dinner! 

 

 

We also were treated to a layover in Greece, where two of the surgeons and myself had a great run and got to see sunrise near the Acropolis.  Amazing!  In addition to the beautiful vistas, were treated to a "sermon on the mount" by a local who was singing on top of a nearby hill when we happened upon him.  After our interruption, he introduced himself and proceeded to give a long, rambling dissertation on many topics, including Astrology (he analyzed our Zodiac signs), the relationship between your heart and mind, various other random topics, and ending with the proclamation that "the only people who cut their hair are criminals, (people with) lice, and soldiers."  After smiling to ourselves with our own shortly buzzed heads, we bid him farewell and continued our run around the Acropolis.  Next stop, the Middle East!