Changeover Limbo in Baghdad

[aadler]

 
So, here I am.

Our replacements showed up weeks ago, trickling in a few at a time (that whole ash-cloud-over-Iceland has scrambled flight schedules all over hell and creation). We showed them where everything was and how everything worked and then, when the time came, turned over operations to them. I had to keep going longer than anyone else, by a few days, but in compensation I didn’t have to train any replacements because the department I’ve been running was slated to be closed down. My verdict on that: “Either I’m so awesome I can’t be replaced, or I ruin everything I touch. And I’m fine with either one.”

There were over a hundred of us when we first arrived. There are barely two dozen now, because our own personnel were likewise sent out a few at a time as their operations ended, so that most of them are now either at a transitional base elsewhere in Iraq, or are already awaiting us in Kuwait. (And if that isn’t a little slice of heaven, nothing is. Yes, sarcasm.) For five days now I’ve been sleeping in late, wearing my PT uniform — shorts, t-shirt, running shoes — instead of the full ACU ensemble, and that came at just the right time because within the past two weeks temperatures went back up above 100° for the first time in months, and then it started getting even hotter … I actually got a mild sunburn on the top of my head, because till now I’d always worn my uniform when I went outside for more than a few minutes during the day. (I’d also been shaving my head, for convenience, but stopped last week because I calculate it’ll take longer for the hair to grow back in than it will take us to process out through Fort Dix.)

My daughter and her fiancé are planning to visit my wife within the next couple of weeks. If absolutely everything went perfectly, I might get home in time to see them before they had to start back. One learns, however, not to count on such things. Honestly, what concerns me most at the moment is the possibility that I could be stuck in transitional status, without adequate Internet access, during the week when Remix Redux 8: Magic Eight Ball goes live and we start trying to guess who among our favorite authors may have been responsible for this work or that one. Okay, I’m shallow.

I’m ready to stay here awhile. I’m ready to be home. But being stuck in the process, that’s kind of a pain.

Comments

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

the very definition of limbo ...

[aadler]

And it just keeps on keeping on …