I am officially back at work now (which basically means I don’t have an excuse to sleep in any more). I spent my first two days back (22nd & 23rd) taking 168 out of phase. It was a nice reintroduction to maintenance – long, hot, frustrating days that culminated in flying right before sunset. The thing is 168 is a good aircraft and the whole process was relatively smooth. I was anxious to get back into the missions so yesterday I volunteered to take Jeff’s spot on the mission today. It wasn’t until I got home and relaxed a bit that I realized how tired I was and that doing a long mission in the heat wasn’t a very smart idea so I gave the flight back to Jeff. It was a good decision because this morning I went in and did a short test flight and by lunch I was beat. I guess I still have a ways to go to get back to 100%. Today was our first real taste of what summer has in store for us. It was 111 F and the wind was developing that nice blow dryer quality. Brian went on leave yesterday. I am going to miss having him around but it was good to see him go – he needs the break. I have been doing a lot more reading lately. For some reason I have to be continually reminded how much I enjoy it. One book I just finished is A History of Iraq. It’s not an encouraging book – history is definitely not on our side, at least as it relates to our current goals.
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2 comments:
Re: Discouraging precedents: Reading a book about the American revolution (a favorite topic) and it might encourage you to know (in case you didn't...unlikely) that it was impossible for the colonies to have beaten England but they did. About 100 times all was lost, hopeless...Not little problems but HUGE ones..no Army, no money, no leadership, no will, no good weather and a squabbling, unfocused on winning Congress. (: And winning not really because the colonies were better..but because England finally thought..."whatever". (Or the diplomatic and military equivalent of that. (: So I am always hopeful about uncertain causes. Not quitting matters. (: And having a very good Armed Forces matters a LOT. Something not so true, except in bits and pieces, in the Revolutionary War. (I am not Dad but posting as) (:
That is very true - a determined group of people have often defeated a much superior military force. But I am not sure that encourages me :)(being a part of the superior military and all) I have no doubts about our ability - my concern is the desire of the Iraqis to change the way they have done business for the last 100 years. A military does a very good job of defeating people but it's not so good at defeating ideas - as England discovered. So I pray that the Iraqi people hit the "whatever" point before we do.
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