A New Year in Iraq

Happy 2008. The Holidays were bitter sweet here in Theater. Bitter, because I was not home with you all. Sweet, because I was able to spend it with some great people and celebrate in some fashion. We had a great little Christmas Eve party with mom's homemade cookies that I reluctantly froze when they arrived, so that we could enjoy them. Then we went to "Midnight Mass" at 2200 hrs. A few days later, we celebrated the coming of a new calendar year with a few hugs and Happy New Year Cheers at 2100, then we all turned in so that we could work bright and early. So I brought in the new year like I would at home, by going to sleep and waking up to another day. But, we can count down now only 13 months knowing that we will be heading home at the end of February 2009.

With the new year comes new experiences. As I sit here and write, I am an hour or two away from where I typically reside. I have a smaller clinic that supports the infantry side of the house at a power plant that we protect. Life here is much nicer than at Kalsu. I have my own room. The showers and bathroom are less than a minute walk and there is barely the amount of dust floating in the air as there are at Kalsu. Although, there are new smells and sounds to deal with, I sleep much better and enjoy the laid back company of the docs and medics here. I traveled to this location by truck. Yup, I went by convoy, which is contrary to how every other physical therapist that I spoke with travels. But you know what... I'm okay with it. It was a great experience, on a route that is relatively safe by road standards due to the frequency of travel between the two sites. I got some great photos that I have to sift through still, and I'll post some that aren't an OPSEC risk. I will return to Kalsu the same way in a few days time. Which I am okay with, because I can return to my small group of friends. I will likely return to this clinic once a month for a shorter period of time to deal with a smaller case load. They have been building this patient load for the past 2 months. Mostly chronic knee and shoulder pain, with a few chronic ankle sprains here and there. One thing about first visits, is that you don't know what equipment is lying in wait for you... in this case.... nothing worthwhile. I have a lot of coordinating and ordering to do to get what these patients need. It's so worth all the work and effort to see soldiers get relief from some of their pain and carry on with their jobs and missions. That's why I'm here. That's what drives me to get up in the morning. It's good stuff.

So a new year is here and I'm one day closer to returning home. I have received a few notes from people for topics. I will post again soon. Somehow I was able to log on myself so I squeezed this rambling post together quickly. I'm going to try to make some sound recordings and talk about the sounds of life at war (at least from my limited experience). Tonight, I may have another experience to add to my list. Down the road is a mortar team and they invited us down to shoot some huge mortars during one of their fire missions. If it's early enough, I may go down and try to participate. It's nice to get in with the right people. Mortar men let you play with their stuff. Back at Kalsu, the Special Forces guys have invited me to come to their private ranges and shoot weapons with them (and believe-you-me I'll take them up on it). So life isn't all that bad, as long as you take the opportunity to make the most of the situations presented.

So... there was a point, then I rambled. I guess you can take this away from today's blog....
Life will present challenges. Take those challenges in stride and try to learn something from it, otherwise you'll make yourself miserable thinking of all the hardship that is at your doorstep.

I'll try to write again soon. I have limited access to the Internet while I'm away from my primary clinic. Be on the lookout for pics and maybe some video. (OOOO..AHHHH).