Days 131 – 146

Feb 9 – Feb 24. Hey all. Yep, I’ve been slacking a bit. I’ve back on the road for the past couple weeks. I spent a few days in Boston where the work was successful and as luck would have it, I was able to meet with my older brother Doug during his layover on his return trip to Maine. We had a nice meal and orientation to the Boston mass transit system. As they say, it’s all good! The following week I traveled to North Carolina and was able to tie in a little leisure time over the weekend with an old Air Force Buddy, Barry Brookman and his lovely bride, Wilma. They were celebrating their respective 50th birthdays (kids! – I got underwear that’s 50!!) with a big party at the local Eagles club. It was a good time and it was great to see their two boys, Spencer and my main man Austin. In the one day I had at home between these two trips I was fortunate enough to have my water heater go bad. Now that was a fun day!!!

Enough RC and back to the Bean. She made her final trip to the Provisional Reconstruction Team (PRT) site just outside of Jalalabad. She had been there before (check the Days 95 – 103 blog entry). She collected a few more photos which I have posted below.

I love the look. I'm not sure if it's a boy or a girl, but the look is so mischievously calculated. Just cracks me up.

Beanie & the gang. Brian (uniform, far right, is the one heading home next week)

I chose this pic because it does such a great job of showing inattention. All the boys are looking in different directions except for center front. The boy in the lower right seems to be contemplating how he got involved in this party.

Now for some really good news! Beanie has made her return flight reservation. We look upon that as a significant milestone in this adventure. She departs Kuwait City the 28th of March, arrives in Atlanta the morning of the 29th (nonstop, 15 hour flight). She travels from Atlanta to Fort Benning. On Monday she reports for out processing, debrief, and equipment turn-in and heads back to Atlanta for the freedom flight home to Phoenix. Now that will be a nice day!!! To make the entire return flight that much better, we were able to get the Kuwait to Atlanta flight upgraded to Business Class, which on an international Boeing 777 flight is pretty nice. Now that’s good stuff!

Beanie is continuing to do the good things she does. Brian, her boss and cohort, is leaving early next month, about 3 weeks before the Bean. Both he, and Jon, the QA that left a bit earlier were instrumental in making Beanie’s tour successful and enjoyable (you know, as enjoyable as 80 hour weeks in a 3rd world country can be). I know Kathy will look back on this adventure with fondness and appreciation; for what she has done and what’s being done. It really is pretty amazing.

Hope all is well with you and yours. You should probably not be shipping additional boxes to Beanie as she is starting to ship her stuff home. If you still want to send treats and cookies, you can just forward them directly to me and I’ll save them for her. No really, I will! Okay, I'll try! Everyone take care and keep Beanie in your thoughts and prayers down the homestretch.

One last point. HEY!! IT'S BEANIE'S BIRTHDAY TODAY. CAN'T SAY HOW OLD SHE IS BUT I WILL TELL YOU TWO THINGS; SHE'S CLOSER TO 60 THAN 50 (HER WORDS) AND SHE'S SMOKIN!!!!

Days 116 - 130

Jan 26 – Feb 8. I guess the best indicator that things are going pretty well is the lack of a need to bitch about something. Though I do get somewhat angry at myself for getting complacent, that’s kind of where we are. Beanie’s been doing well as we march down to mission complete. We’ve even started looking at return flight dates. They now have a nonstop from Kuwait City to Atlanta. It would be nice to eliminate any stopovers. If she has to clear customs in any other country (like Germany on the way over) she has to grab her three duffel bags, drag them through customs, clear immigration, grab the three duffel bags again, and check them. Bad enough she’ll need to do it on her own when she gets to Atlanta. Gee, I guess I missed something – I did have something to bitch about!! Hopefully Uncle Sugar can make that flight work.

I’ve begun my “get ready for Beanie to come home” checklist. There’s lots of stuff to do. Besides cleaning, dusting, and a few major jobs (replace water heater, fix pool chlorinator) that I said I would get done while she was gone, there’s a couple “unexpected” things like mudding and painting any holes in the wall. You know mostly structurally related repairs.

Kathy is in Bagram for a few days for some in-theatre training for something or other. She hitched a ride from FOB Fenty to Bagram on one of the mail runs. They call them “Snap” flights. I always get a little more concerned when they put her in the air, but hey, that is where all the fun is!! She’s supposed to return on Monday or Tuesday. I head out to Boston tomorrow for a short trip. The good news is on Tuesday my brother is flying through Boston on his way back to Maine so if thinks work out well we should be able to meet for a couple hours and maybe have a nice meal.

On a closing note, today is our 34th wedding anniversary. We chatted a little last night. It’s not so weird that we’re not together on our anniversary as we’ve been separated before, but this is the first time she’s been away. Somehow that’s different. I miss her deeply, but we really are coming down the home stretch. Once again, thanks to all of you that have been making this journey with us.