News From Baghdad

Today was a pretty long day in Iraq, with lots of lows and very few highs(other than the temperature!)

A sandstorm kicked up this morning right about the time we rolled out and it hasn't stopped yet. It's not the worst one we've been through, by any means, but a sandstorm is crappy regardless of the intensity! Especially when you're on the gun. I'd compare it to standing in a room that's in the process of being sandblasted. You feel it everywhere, and you can never ever ever get rid of the sand that just builds up on everything. Especially weapons.

After our missions this morning (there were 3) I had to come back and pull tower guard, oh yeah!!

I had guard duty with Watts, who's really cool. He's a mechanic, but he's been doing a Scout's job ever since he showed up to 6/8 Cavalry, so he knows his stuff! The dude also loves to read, and we have alot in common which makes six hours in a jail cell go by a lot faster.

We noticed something tonight that only soldiers in Iraq would notice, or even appreciate. Over here we don't have refrigerators, we have coolers with ice. We stock these coolers with water, Gatorade, Coke, Rip-its, whatever. Tonight, I reached into the cooler in the guard tower and grabbed a Gatorade, then did what I always do. I squeezed the crap out of it to get the water out from behind the label. Watts started laughing when I did this, which kinda caught me off guard. Then he said, "Dude, only a Joe would understand what you just did." You see, what happens to Gatorade bottles when left in a cooler with water, is several ounces of water get trapped between the label and the ergonomic grips which provide a secure grip for the electrolitic explosion you're about to enjoy. This water usually drips out at random periods throughout your drinking experience convincing you that you just spilled all over your lap, but no.....it was just the water. To prevent these little surprises, Joe came up with a solution: squeeze the crap out of the bottle before you pull it out of the cooler, shake it, bang it on the cooler, then take off the label and then VOILA!! -- no water on your lap!

Funny how things like this seem so natural to us, but in the states I never would have thought to do that. Nor would I ever have had the problem, because I would take my cold Gatorade from a refrigerator!! It was funny.