Coming off duty

 
I just got back from a three-day drill weekend, almost the entirety of which we spent out in the field. I was slightly surprised to discover at my age that spending a couple of nights sleeping in the ground 1) not only is something I can still do, but 2) doesn’t even leave me really the worse for wear. I’m badly out of shape — though I’m about to get to work on remedying that — but I seem to have maintained a kind of internal toughness.

(To get some idea of what I mean: Back in 2003, when we crossed the border from Kuwait into Iraq, we drove for three days straight to reach our assigned area of operation, stopping only for fuel and the repair of other vehicles in the convoy. My team chief didn’t want to risk letting anything be stolen off our truck, so all of our equipment and supplies were crammed inside. I was stationed in the turret, and the mass of gear below me meant I couldn’t really get very far down into the vehicle if I wanted to. At that time of the year, the nights still got cold; so I’d stay up in the turret until that frigid wind was just more than I could endure, then I’d hunch down inside, kneeling on top of the piled gear until my legs cramped so much I couldn’t continue; and I just cycled back and forth, all night long, every night until we arrived. And it was no big deal. Seriously, it was just the way things were. I remember noting at the time, It’s amazing what you can put up with when you don’t have any choice.)

Anyway, now that the weekend is done, I can get back to keying in and revising the draft for my remixredux08 submission. Knowing myself as I do, and my past performance, that will probably involve adding anywhere from one to three thousand words. So, time to get to it.