Still Here

Well, it's nearly June and we're still not sure when we're going home. Oh well, I guess I should have expected that, it is the Army after all. I'm not overly concerned with it. I really don't enjoy being here, but at least I'm getting to put more money into my savings. It is however getting very warm. It's regularly in the 110+ temperatures. I think the hottest it's gotten so far is about 120. Honestly though, I'm kind of getting used to it. Walking around in ACUs is not all that fun, but when I'm walking around in my PT (fitness) uniform, it's not really all that bad. But apparently it's still supposed to get 10-20 degrees hotter. With the heat, the constant dust and smoke and the miles and miles of dirt, I have trouble understanding how anyone can live in this country and how at one point in time this was the "cradle of life".

The day to day routine is about the same. My mission schedule off the FOB has slowed down and unless we stay a lot longer I'm probably done traveling. It's kind of nice to be able to stay in a routine, however, it does make the time go by slower. I've been getting my 2-a-day workouts in. It's definately nice to have so much time to workout. I'm already kind of dreading going back and not having all this time to workout. I probably won't be too sad though to trade a workout here or there for a day on the golf course. My clinic schedule continues to increase. My clinic space is small so my technician and I can't work at the same time. He sees patients in the morning and I see them in the afternoon. With that kind of schedule we're actually at capacity for what the clinic can handle. The work isn't too bad. I'd say about 40-50% of my patient load are the normal soft soldiers with chronic issues. But there have also been a lot of interesting orthopedic cases. Just had a guy the other day who tore his achilles, one that dislocated his shoulder and a girl that blew out her ACL. I've also had a rash of Brachial plexopathies, which I didn't really see a lot of in garrison. Piriformis syndrome tends to be popping up lately as well. So it's not really a bad work situation. My average day goes like this:

0630-0800 Weight lifting

0800-0900 Show and chill

0900-1130 Kind of work on administrative stuff but also just kind of bum around the office

1130-1300 Lunch

1300-1700 See patients

1700-1830 Evening workout, usually cardio

1830-1930 Dinner

1930-2200 Chill

Not bad. It's amazing how much more time you have in a day when you don't have to drive to work or go grocery shopping.

Well, that's about it for now. Oh, I included a photo of the dust storm the other day.

Hot!

It's really starting to warm up now. The other day the high got up to 115 degrees! Fortunately right now it's kind of a dryer heat, unlike Kuwait. However, once it gets above 110, it really doesn't matter all that much. Someone said the other day that it felt like someone was pointing a full body blow dryer at you. I agree with that sentiment. The evenings haven't been so bad. It probably gets into the low 90s at night. I had a flight the other day which wasn't so bad. We flew doors open, but it was still pretty warm. I can't imagine going out on patrol in a full kit in these temperatures.
Anyway, I'm on the road again. This is probably going to be my last trip to Polar Bear country! Of course that's what I thought the last trip down here. But that's pretty typical Army, the only constant being change. I'll be glad to be done with these guys, their command is absolutely crazy and the whole culture down here is one of complaining and yelling. It's really amazing to see the difference between units with good and bad command climates.
So I've been kind of getting into the Dry Needling techniques. It's pretty interesting stuff and so far seems to yield pretty good results. I think I'm going to try to go to some courses to get certified in the technique when I get back. It also helps that the course I want to go to is in Denver. I love continuing education! What a great excuse for traveling on the Army's dime to great places and to see friends.
Well, still no new news about out redeployment schedule. I'm not too worried about it. At least if we make it to August that's another month of tax free and combat pay.