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!!!!