The Farewell Tour Begins!

I’m actually down to the last week of my deployment! Having finished my last morning briefing to IJC this morning, I’m now spending more time out-processing and getting ready to leave than doing actual work. I’ve already had one farewell dinner with the RC-West and Air team from FuOps. This past Monday, I received my NATO Medal. And yesterday morning, I was in the IJC Recognition Ceremony, where the three-star general presented me with a certificate of appreciation. Then, sometime this week, the FuOps colonel will give me my group photo and plaque during a morning meeting (I had to pay for it, but they get it engraved). Then on the 8th, the 2-star German general in charge of the overall Air team gives me the DCoS Air certificate and says farewell. AND then, though I haven't heard anything specific, I imagine the EASOG (my actual unit) will do a little something for me. One of the Lt Cols has already mentioned writing my decoration. Seriously, that's all farewell-related events during my last week here. Wow, I guess that’s one of the benefits of officially and unofficially working for several different organizations.

Here's the office photo of the Future Operations team. These are the people I worked with most, day in and day out.

Here's a few of us posing with the one-star admiral (he's the one to my right) that presented us with our NATO Medals for participating in the NATO/ISAF mission.

Here's me receiving a certificate of appreciation from the big boss himself, General Rodriguez, IJC Commander.

Happy Anniversary Valarie!

Have you ever struggled to find the perfect words to express how deeply and emotionally wonderful you felt for something or someone special to you? That’s how I feel today. Sometimes I think I’m a pretty good writer, able to paint a vivid word-picture or turn a clever phrase. But when thinking about how wonderful Valarie has been in our marriage; how amazingly loyal, supportive, and loving of a partner she has been; how enduringly hard-working and caring of a wife and mother she has been; how naturally beautiful, interesting, and funny of a person she has been, any words I can write just pale in comparison to the feelings of love and admiration I have for her. She’s just the best thing in the world to me and I appreciate everyday how truly blessed I am to have her. I can still remember the first feelings of love I had for Valarie when we were dating in high school, like the first casual, matter-of-fact kiss she gave me when I dropped her off from a date and I didn’t feel (so) nervous around her anymore, just happy. And over the past 24 years (21 married), there have been thousands of simple loving, exciting, and happy moments like that early kiss that have made me feel special and grateful to be in love with and loved by such a wonderful person. I thought I was love in high school, but as Van Morrison said, “It ain’t nothing like I love you now.” I’m so happy I have Valarie in my life and can’t wait to share the next 20+ years with her, then the next 20+ years after that. Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart. I love you with all my heart, mind, and soul.

From 2 Months Left to 2 Weeks in Just 1 Day

One of the reasons I took this deployment was to get a 180-day deployment out of the way so I wouldn’t get tagged for a 365 sometime (years) later. But now that it’s all but assured I’ll have to retire in summer 2011, I don’t really need to worry about getting a long deployment anymore. Fortunately, I’m deployed in an optional manning billet (vice the official ISAF manning billet) and it’s always been theoretically possible that I could leave early. In fact, they’ve been “threatening” to send some of us home early for months now. There are too many volunteer/optional people and IJC has needed to cut down the extra people. Of course, I never planned on that and just kept plugging away. After receiving the “Promote” on my PRF, I did start thinking about how I could start planting the seeds with the Group Staff to maybe consider letting me leave early. I knew they wouldn’t have that much of a problem with it and would probably support it, but I didn’t know how to start working it with IJC.

Then, totally unprompted, the Lt Col that tracks all of the Air Force manning came to my desk and asked me for my tour start and end dates. I told him, “31 Oct and as soon as possible.” He smirked at me like he had heard that tired joke too many times. Then I said, “Here’s the deal, sir” and explained the whole “Promote” PRF above the zone notification I received (just 3 days earlier). Being an Air Force Lt Col, he knew exactly what that meant and actually said to me, “So you don’t need this deployment.” Then he explained that the reason he was asking was because the IJC CJ1 (Admin) was scrubbing the optional billets and had my departure date as March. I told him that that would work for me and he said that if my Group agreed he would submit my new departure date. I checked with the Group, they had no problem with it, so I told the Lt Col that he could change the date. Then he asked me when in March I wanted to leave, so naturally I said, “The first week”, and we agreed on 7 March. So just like that, I went from being 2 months from going home to being 2 weeks.

I thought about waiting until 25 February to tell Val the news as sort of an anniversary gift, but I couldn’t keep news that good to myself. I had to tell her. And I’m glad I did; she said she would have been mad if I knew for a week before telling her the good news. Thinking about it, I realize she should get the good news as soon as possible as well, so she can feel as uplifted and relieved as me. I’m still coordinating with the Air Force Admin personnel to get all of the paperwork, requests, and travel arrangements officially approved and completed, but I’m confident that it will all work out. I almost can’t believe how coincidental all of this has been! It’s truly amazing and I’m extremely thankful to a gracious Lord that I’ll be going home as soon as possible to be with my wonderful family again. .

I've Officially Gone ROAD

I had been so anxious lately about getting my PRF because, as I said in the previous post, it meant the difference between getting promoted and being asked to retire. I was disappointed last year when I didn’t make it in the “primary zone” board and knew that my chances “above the zone” were extremely small (literally 2%). So I had been mentally preparing myself for retirement, while still holding out a glimmer of hope for promotion. But the more I thought about it, the thought of retirement, even with the realization that I’d have to find a new job/career, started sounding better and better to me. For the most part I’ve enjoyed being in the military. It’s had its advantages, but I think I was starting to burn out on it. The PCS moves got harder and harder. I’ve had my limit of supervisors/commanders telling me I’m the best thing since sliced bread, then “forgetting” to give me a decent stratification or include annual and quarterly awards on my annual evaluations (OPRs) (Note from Val: These are awards he has actually won, but weren't entered into his official record somehow. It's been a lot of work for Eric to retroactively get them entered, and then theydisappeared again.). And I’ve gotten too tired of hoping in an assignment and promotion system that I don’t understand and have no control over.

So when I received my PRF a few days ago and saw that it had a “Promote” recommendation, I had a lot of mixed feelings, but general acceptance. On one hand, I was disappointed again that I didn’t receive a “Definitely Promote”. I had hoped to make Lt Col, work a few more years in the Air Force, then retire. I know I’m as good or better than half of the Lt Col’s I’ve seen or worked with, but I just didn’t make it through the system. But, I also know that I’ve been burning out on the Air Force for a little while now and it’s probably a good thing to just move on. Sure, I’m nervous about finding another job. I haven’t had to find and be accepted for a full-time job since signing recruitment papers in 1987. But I’m also kind of excited about doing something different and hopefully doing that thing for several years, so I can have the mental stability of doing the same job and becoming an expert in something. Every 3-year assignment has been a different job and even within those assignments, I’ve had different jobs. So, in the summer of 2011, I’ll be 42 and will start a new career; one that will hopefully settle us down for a longer timeframe (especially since the kids will be starting high school and middle school respectively).

So for my remaining 15 months in the Air Force, I’m officially ROAD (retired on active duty). Most often that’s a negative description of a guy that doesn’t care about doing any work for the Air Force because he knows it won’t help his career or he’s just counting down the days until he officially separates from the Air Force. I will still have a positive attitude and do my full job and help others to do their jobs well; I like doing meaningful work and improving the product or process, but I know my priorities will change somewhat. I’ve got to job hunt and I want the family and I to travel and experience and enjoy as much of Europe as possible while we’re there. Hopefully I won’t become the negative connotation of ROAD, but I’ll be ROAD none-the-less as I start trying to plan for the next career. Yikes, how do civilians do it?

Val Makes a Bad Day Good

As my previous post probably suggests, I’ve been in less-than-stellar mood lately. I’ve been very busy supporting the Logistics ROC (rehearsal of concept) drill. I should have a very small role in the ROC drill, seeing how I’m not in Logistics, but they kept hitting me up for information and tagging me to brief more and more things. I understand that I’m one of the few people that have been tracking the force flow for a while now, but that doesn’t make me a Logistics officer. Plus, I’ve been trying to actually do some Air-related taskers on the side and the RC-West team still wants me to help them out on their planning. Plus! The 14-15 hour days seems longer than I remembered them.

But probably the biggest thing that’s been bugging me lately is waiting to see the final draft of my Lt Col PRF (promotion recommendation form). I know the form has been written and they have to send it to me before the board on 8 March, so I’m just anxiously waiting. This next board is my next and last decent chance to be selected for promotion and my chances all hinge on whether I get a “Promote” or “Definitely Promote” recommendation. Only a “Definitely Promote” recommendation would get me promoted. Otherwise, I “have” to retire in the summer of 2011. But to be honest, during a chaotic deployment like this I often think I would rather retire and move on to something different.

Lucky Val gets to hear most of the things that bother me because she’s one of the few people I feel I can vent to. Plus, she’s my bestest best friend in the whole, wide universe. So she knows when I’m struggling or down in general. But even before I vented to her here recently, I just happened to check out the Navigon blog and see what sweet and thoughtful words she had to say about how hard I work (Feb 15, "How Do You Do It?" post). No one knows better than me how hard Val works and hopefully she knows how much I appreciate her. It was just wonderful timing and extremely uplifting to read how much she appreciates the work that I do. Even when work or the world in general starts to wear on me, just thinking about how lucky I am to have such a wonderful wife and children always puts things in perspective for me and I find the patience and endurance to “just do it.”

Back to the Grind

For some reason, the 16-hour plane ride back to Dubai was harder than the 16-hour plane ride back to the US; only slept a few hours. We arrived in Dubai at 8:30 pm, but our connecting flight didn't take-off until 6:30 am. The hard part of spending the night in the Dubai airport was trying to transfer to the other terminal to wait to board my next flight. Since my next flight didn't leave until the next morning, I couldn't go straight over to the other terminal. So I had to wait until 12:30 before they'd let me through the security gate. THEN, I find out that I have to wait until 3:30 am to get my transfer to the other terminal. It was a lot of waiting around, trying to catch a nap with my head in my hand. All this (the flights, the waiting) was made harder by a massive head-cold I had been fighting for two weeks.

I arrived back to Kabul and KAIA by 11:00 am and was showered, shaved, and back at work by 1:00 pm. Like coming back from all TDYs and leaves, I spent the afternoon clearing out hundreds (literally) of e-mails I received while I was gone. It was kind of nice though that co-workers were shaking my hand to welcome me back; like they genuinely missed me.
Then, reality set in as people started informing me of projects and taskers that I had to do soon: Who's waiting on me to do the beddown slides? I'm supposed to brief the force flow at what ROC drill? I'm going out to RC-West when; to help them do what? That kept me spun-up
for awhile and actually helped me make it through most of the day, but by 7:00 pm I was starting to feel loopy, literally dizzy. So I left work early and slept 11 hours. Fortunately the next day was Sunday, a late report day.

It's taken almost a week to finally get over my cold. I think it was the vitamin B complex and zinc pills I've been taking every morning and getting 8 hours of sleep each night that finally helped me kill it off. And I've gotten a grasp on which duties and taskers I actually have to
do. I've successfully pushed off or deflected a few and know what I need to do for the rest. Now I just have to get use to working 14-15 hours days again.

100204 - Back to Afghanistan

Well, it’s been a wonderful break from the deployment. I haven’t written much because I’ve been so busy enjoying my down time. The conference went well, in as much as I contributed some and learned a lot. The actual transportation plan however didn’t go so well and caused the one-week conference to be extended for four more days. While it wasn’t so good for the conference, it did mean that I needed to extend my visit as well. So got to enjoy America even more! It’s been great. I was able to surf iTunes and download more TV shows and new songs. (Josh Ritter – Great Big Mind; Gomez – Airstream Driver; Basia Bulat – Before I Knew; etc.) I caught up on my favorite TV shows. (Heroes – how many times is Sylar going to switch between being a hero or a villain? Lost – loved the two-hour episode, following two separate timelines; they’re not showing yet in Germany, so Val will have to download it from iTunes (hint, hint); and enjoyed the American Idol auditions – how can people be so clueless that they can’t see? And now I get the pants-on-the-ground reference.) I ate out so much (Texas Roadhouse, Olive Garden, Chevy’s, IHOP, Boston Market, Applebee’s, California Pizza Kitchen, etc.) I’m actually looking forward to just grabbing a quick meal at the chow hall. I did a lot of window-shopping since I only brought a carry-on bag and couldn’t take anything additional back to Afghanistan, but it was nice to just look around. And I got to talk to Val at least once a day.

In weird way though, I’m kind of ready to get back to Afghanistan. I know this TDY is just temporary and I need to get back to the deployment so I can start counting down to the end of the deployment. The end of January was the halfway point. Now that it’s February (the shortest month!), it feels like I’m on the downhill side of the deployment. I feel (mentally) recharged and am ready to get back to work, start working out more, and start planning for some family summer-time vacations. Physically, I've been sick the entire time I've been here. I've had a head cold and can't seem to shake it. For some reason, I feel like I'll be able to shake it when I get back to Afghanistan. That seems weird to me, but I felt better when I was there, so that's another reason I'm looking forward to getting back. I’ve just got to get through February, March, and should be home by the end of April. Man, I can’t wait. The family and I have been hanging in there, but it will be so much easier to all be together again.

100124 – Back in America!

So one of the big projects I’ve been helping with had a conference coming up at Scott AFB and they needed to send two people to represent our organization. They picked a logistics Lt Col to lead the TDY and it was between me and another O-4 to go to assist. Fortunately for me, the other O-4 didn’t have a passport. (He’s a Naval submariner, so as he put it, “I’ve never needed a passport in a sub.” But I’m an Air Force tourist stationed in Germany, so I definitely had a passport.) It was a very complicated process to get the orders and travel arrangements made, but I kept telling myself that it would be worth it. After all, it’s very rare that you go TDY from a deployment and even more rare that that TDY is a week conference to the US. While it’s great to be going back to the US from a deployment, you have to remember, I haven’t been in the US for a year before the deployment. While Germany has been a great adventure and a very interesting place to live, there are a lot of things about the US that the family and I have missed. So while I felt bad for the other deployers that don’t get the chance to take a TDY back to the US, I felt probably worse for Val and the kids who weren’t able to take a quick vacation back to the US like me. I arrived yesterday and in just that first day I went to Target AND Wal-mart to buy some things I couldn’t get in Afghanistan and Val couldn’t get in Germany (tons of variety for things I’m actually looking for and the prices are great), ate barbeque ribs at Texas Roadhouse for lunch and a double cheeseburger Mighty Kids meal at McDonald’s for dinner (seriously), watched a Gators basketball game, talked to Val and the kids for more than an hour via Skype, and downloaded new songs and TV shows from iTunes (via free high-speed Internet at the hotel). Man, America is great! Today I plan to watch the NFL conference championship games, download all of the updates my computer and programs need, Skype Val, and go to Olive Garden or Boston Market for dinner. Tomorrow, I guess I’ve got to get back to work, but even that, being back on a big Air Force base, will be a nice change. More later…

100116 – OPT Visit to Herat

I've been very busy lately, working on some projects and planning two trips. The first one was a 3-day trip to Herat. This post is a quick impression of that visit. The second one is a 12-day trip to the US! I'm so excited about that one, but more about that later. First, Herat...

One of the several projects I’m part of at IJC is the Future Operations RC-West Operational Planning Team (OPT). It’s interesting, but also confusing because we’re trying to plan EVERY aspect of the security, governance, and development of the region. What makes it even harder is the fact that our OPT is at IJC Headquarters and the operators and planners of RC-West are so far away. Like any large organization, especially spread across vast distances, orders and plans get lost in translation between the Headquarters and the front-line units. Add the fact that IJC HQ is mostly English speakers (US, UK, Australia, Canada) and RC-West is all Italian and Spanish and even more is lost in translation, literally. So our team decided to make frequent visits to RC-West to coordinate and work together, face-to-face.

So Fernando, a Spanish major at IJC, and I made a 3-day trip to Herat to meet the RC-West planning team, to get some answers to questions the IJC team had, and to see how we could help the RC-West team. That all sounded great from our IJC perspective, but when I got there the first question the Spanish colonel asked me was, “why are you here again?” I tried to explain that we were here to ask a few questions—to understand how far along they were in planning specific topics—and to see if we could help them in any way. Well, from their perspective, they’re exactly on course on all of their planning efforts and don’t our help. It didn’t help that just before we got there they heard of an IJC plan to send a 10-person team for a month-long visit to “help” them. The colonel literally said he didn’t see the need for the IJC “invasion.” Great I thought; I’ve walked into a hornet’s nest of defensive foreigners. On the second day, the colonel also said he didn’t understand the need for an IJC “mentor” team to come and “check” his team’s work. Fortunately, one of my key skills is understanding other people’s/organizations’ perspective and finding common ground. The past few days took all of that skill to stay welcomed and to actually find something that we could all do together to help each other execute the mission. The RC isn’t perfect, but to be fair, for several of the issues we didn’t think they were working they showed us their detailed plans and orders to their units to work those issues. They also showed us where they post on their homepage a lot of the information we were looking for. So there’s a lot of improving that IJC HQ needs to do as well. Overall, it was still a nice visit. Again, it was good to get away from KAIA, to see and appreciate another part of Afghanistan and the ISAF mission. I took a few pictures while at Herat, but I haven't had time to compress the files and upload them to the MacBook. I'll post the pictures later.

New Dorm Room

Well, I’m finally settled into a new dorm room, with another American major in my career field and deployed unit, and a British squadron leader (the Royal Air Force equivalent to a major) who works with me in Future Operations as a fellow Air Planner. When we moved in we had two desks and two chairs already assembled. Most other rooms had to assemble theirs. I’m glad I didn’t have to mess it that. (I assembled enough furniture for our Germany house to last me awhile.) We don’t have our wardrobes yet, but I think there’s ‘plenty’ of room to spread them out in the room so we’ll have a little personal space. We’re ‘supposed’ to start getting them next week. I started collecting empty water boxes and was planning to duct tape them into a cardboard chest-of-drawers, but I guess I’ll just wait for the wardrobes. The room is approximately 9 feet wide and 18 feet long. At first, I thought it was going to feel tight or cramped, but when I laid down to go to sleep the first night I looked over at one of our piles of bags and realized how far away it was…there was 4 feet of floor space between me and our gear! In the tent, I had 3 by 6 feet of floor space my bed and the wall of the tent, and that included my 2 by 3 foot footlocker. So even with three people and lots of personal bags, the room actually feels roomy. It’s all relative, I guess. So when you go to bed tonight, look around and appreciate your spacious American accommodations (or American-like for those in Germany!). I’m not trying to make anyone feel guilty, but rather blessed for all that you have.

The new dorm buildings are on the developing, West-end of the base. Check out how much dust that van is kicking up. That’s on a paved road, but the sand and dust have built up an inch or two over it. Imagine how pleasurable it is when a vehicle passes you while you’re going for a run…I’ll tell you it’s not fun trying to breathe through all of that dust.

Here’s the view between the buildings. There’s no landscaping yet, but I’m sure tons of gravel are on the way.

Here’s my master suite, as viewed from the front door. We don’t have our wardrobes yet, so everything’s sitting out or piled up. You can’t see it, but there’s a desk to the left, behind the front bunk. I sleep in the bottom bunk to the right. We had to raise the bunk up on cinder blocks so could store some bags under there. We also have bags on the one upper, empty bunk. My American roommate sleeps in the bottom bunk to the left. He brought black shower curtains and sheets to enclose his bunk. I guess he’s pretty serious around blocking out the light so can sleep (or develop film photography).

And here’s the view from the back of the room. There’s our second desk, although my American roommate has taken up that desk with his stuff. I thought I had too much stuff—I have a total of five bags, but he has even more stuff than I do and it’s more spread out. My stuff is packed or stacked in three neat piles right now. My British roommate only has two bags. Of course, he’s only here for four months (and still gets a mid-tour leave, but that’s another story).

No Football Bowl Day ... But Buzkashi Instead

Yesterday a mass e-mail went out to the IJC saying that we had been personally invited by one of the Afghan generals to attend a Buzkashi match (for lack of a better word). Buzkashi (translated as “goat grabbing”) is an old Central Asian, mainly Afghan in fact, competition where men on horseback wrestle for control of a goat or calf carcass, race around a pole or flag, and place the carcass in a circle. (Check out Wikipedia for more information.) I have seen the sport on the Discovery Channel, so I had an idea what it was like. The invitation was limited to the first 50 responders. I knew I wanted to go, so without too much decision-making effort I responded that I wanted to go…I was the ninth person on the list.

I did worry a little bit about the security situation. The e-mail said it was going to take place at the Kabul stadium. While there is always some threat just driving the roads here, my main concern was actually being in a large crowd of people and thinking that one of them may sneak in a weapon or something, but I figured since the Marines were the ones coordinating the event, they would probably be well represented there and that I and 49 well-armed Marines and Soldiers could adequately protect ourselves. After an uneventful, but bumpy ride (especially since I was in the very back of the armored Suburban) we arrived at the “stadium.”

I lost my bearings from riding backwards and having one, small window to look out, but we were somewhere on the western outskirts of Kabul, on some rolling hills near the foot of the mountains, at what would probably only be considered a horse stadium. There were a lot of armed ISAF and Afghan soldiers standing guard/overwatch at every high point around. While there were nearly 50 horses and riders, there were very few spectators. I felt a lot safer realizing that this was really an event arranged almost solely for us. And before the match, several US helicopters landed and unloaded Gen McChrystal (COMISAF), Gen Rodriguez (COMIJC), and at least six other general officers. Then I knew I was as safe as I could possibly get in Afghanistan, so I was able to relax and enjoy the sights.

First of all, it’s just really neat to see the Afghan riders (and horses) up close and personal, smile at them and nod Hello, and to receive some acknowledgement back from them. They were mostly looking at us like we were the strange, exotic ones. It was nice to see more scenery. We could see more of the mountains and more of the city. Whichever part of town we were in is going through a building boom. There were several miles of lots that have been walled off, most foundations and support structures of large houses in the process of construction. (I think that’s a very good sign for the security and development of Afghanistan.)

Then of course, we got to watch and enjoy the match. And no surprise to me, it was extremely cool to see in person. There isn’t a lot of constant, fast-paced action, as there is a lot of positioning, pushing, and wrestling to pick up the carcass from the ground (they have to reach down while still saddled on/to the horse), but when a rider did finally pick up the carcass it got exciting as the tried to break free of the pack and race down the edge of the stadium, literally just a few feet from where I was standing.

Only a few of the riders went all the way around the green flag at the other end of the field, with most racing about two-thirds down before turning back to place the carcass in the circle for a ‘score’. But there really is no scoring per say, or even a time limit for the match. When a rider places the carcass in the circle, he wins that turn and receives an award or prize. Today, it was “straight cash, Homey.” When a rider scored/won that turn, one of the other riders who was obviously partially in charge would ride up to the winner and hand him cash. I think the riders that went farther down the field before turning around to return to the circle received more prize money.

I’ll try to share and explain a little more in the captions to the pictures below. (Due to limited bandwidth and the desire to post as many pictures as possible, I’ve had to compress the pictures. But you should get the idea. And you can still click on them to increase the size.) Overall, it was a great experience, a true once-in-a-lifetime event that I’m glad that I ventured out to attend.

I was standing at the gate when some of the riders and horses entered the stadium. This was my first sight of the event and it was so close…very cool.

Now this rider was your stereo-typical Buzkashi tough guy…hairy chest at all. And yes, he won several turns.

Even tough guys have to check their cell phones one last time before the match.

Here’s the prize-money man. Yep, that’s a big stack of Afghani cash in is hand. After a rider won a turn he would ride up to them and give them a few bills, although I have no idea how much of course.

This guy was the character of the match. At first, I thought he was some sort of referee because he seemed to be hollering at the riders a lot, but then seemed to be hollering at the crowd a lot, too. It was kind of an epic, sing-song hollering though. I think he was more like an announcer or color commentator. He cracked up the official reviewing stand once and was promptly paid a prize as well.

Buzkashi - More Action!

So here I am, right on the edge of the Buzkashi action.

Each turn starts off with a rugby-like scrum near the finish circle in front of the official reviewing stand. The riders whip their horses into the scrum in order to push others out of the way so that they can grab the carcass from the ground. (Editor's note: click on the photo and check out the armed security on the building in the background. Good to see.)

Here’s a closer shot of the scrum with a good example of how they pushed and reared the horses forward into the pile in order to move others out of the way.

After a rider is able to grab the carcass, he races down the right side of the stadium, heading for the far end of the field. I think they always headed down the right side in order to block other riders from being able to snatch the carcass from them. Notice how the rider has to lean to the left to balance the weight of the probably 100-pound carcass.

Here the prize-money man decided to get in the mix and tried to steal the carcass. Seconds after this picture, he had caught up to the other rider and I saw the his RIGHT hand reach out on the lower LEFT side of his horse as he reached out to within inches of grabbing the carcass from the other rider. Mentally, I had focused in on his hand so much it almost felt like I was watching it in slow motion. It was only after they passed that I realized how far to the left he must have been leaning off of the horse to get that close to touching the carcass while the other rider was speeding away.

Buzkashi - More pics

Here two guys who seem to be part of the red team work together to win a turn. I'm not sure why no one contested their finish. Usually several riders rode alongside the main rider as he neared the finish circle and push or guide his horse away from the circle.

These two were the prettiest horse AND rider at the match. They didn't even try to mix in the scrum or any of the chases. They just raced back and forth every now and then. I'm not sure who he was trying to impress ... although I kind of was ... more so of the horse, mind you, which was beautiful, than of the rider, who was kind of cool too. (Notice teh quilted version of the Uzbek robelike President Karzai likes to wear. There were a few children wearing the quilted Uzbek robes too. They were cute.

"What are you looking at? Go back to work!"

Tebow's Swan Song

I was able to wake up a little earlier this morning and watch the first half of the Sugar Bowl on a big-screen TV with sound. Then at half-time I had to attend one of my morning meetings. Fortunately, the daily IJC brief (my second morning meeting) is broadcasted across the mission computer system that also has streaming video feeds of AFN. I was able to open two separate windows on my desktop and watch the second half of the game. Even though the picture was 3-inches wide and without sound, it was still fun to watch the Gators play. I like watching football, but I'm like Pavlov's dog when I see orange and blue of the Gators playing. It's great. And I'm extremely happy the Gators didn't come out flat like Alabama did last year. Being Tebow's last game and with the issues surrounding Coach Meyers' health and status for next year, you would have thought they'd rally around the team and play well. I'm glad they did. It's great to be a Florida Gator!

Your coach has a heart condition and you still dump ice-cold Gatorade on him? What are you thinking? Are you TRYING to kill him? I already thought this was the dumbest tradition in football. It was probably hilariously surprising the first time someone did it (history says probably the '85 NY Giants), but it's too clichéd, inconvenient, and meaningless now. Stop the Gatorade dunking already!!!

I'm glad such a talented football player and quality young man had such a wonderful last game. The University of Florida owes Tebow a lot of gratitude for being such a good role-model, as well as football athlete. I hope he finds success in the NFL. Thanks Tim!

2 Months - 9 Weeks Done

Below is a message to Val a few days ago when I officially had 120 days left; now it’s down to 117!

“Sweetheart,

Attached is a screen capture of my deployment calendar thus far. I update it every few days. There's not a lot of information on there, but it helps me keep track of the highlights, as well as count down the days. I just thought you'd be interested. The thing that jumps out to me is that lately I PT every Tuesday...whether I need it or not. I've got to get into a routine; a Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday workout schedule would be nice. I've got to work on that. (5 December is purposely censored; it's a home-coming surprise.) As of today, I only have 120 days left, so we're a third of the way through. Even though 120 days still sounds long, being a third of the way through feels good. Three of the main guys I've been working with lately are all here for an entire year and they got here just after me. When it comes up in conversation (like me being happy that I’m a third of the way through already) I feel so bad for those guys. I definitely can't complain (to them) about being here six months. One guy just got divorced and is using the deployment to build his finances back up, so I don't feel too bad for him, but the other two have wives and kids so I do feel pretty bad for them. Still, I feel bad for myself, too, because I'm away from the most wonderful family in the world and I love you guys so much. Hang in there. We're doing pretty well so far. I'm really looking forward to hitting that half-way point! I love you, Angel of mine!”