Blocked!

This is the message I received early morning on 19 August 2006 when trying to access my email account on Yahoo!...

Looks like we have been taken back a few steps into the "stone age" once again as far as Internet access is concerned.

I understand the threat to security and the passing of information over secured and unsecured networks around the camp site.

I also undertsand the logic behind misappropriation and misuse of government computer time. But lets face facts here - chances are very slim that any harm could ever come from checking your web email from Yahoo!, Gmail or Hotmail accounts. The lines are secured - there is anti-spyware, virus protection and firewalls in place, and yet there still is a collective raising of the "black curtain" that prohibits us from accessing our daily emails in the comfort of the office and away from other prying eyes...

It's just a small gripe of mine, but one that I fully understand. I am most certain that I have fans of this particular blog all over the France, Germany and maybe even in China too. I am almost certain that every email and telephone conversation is "intercepted" in one form or another and deciphered over uncoded text channels and screened for information. The spy game went "hi-tech" a few years ago, and really there is no such thing as a fully encrypted or safe transmission if the information originates from an electronic source such as a computer, cell-phone or hand-held radio.

Anyway, it will do me no good to sit her an bemoan my fate. What is done is done and there is nary a thing I can do to reverse the situation at hand. I will come to accept it as a minor setback and adapt to the situation that has been set before me.

I will accept it as is - I didn't say I would like it, but I will accept it never the less...

Doc's On Patrol

Averaging a patrol every4 days, it's a known fact that we "Docs" have been on more patrols than 95 percent of the Marines here on camp. The only person who has managed to complie more patrols than we have has been our translator...

Seeing that we have been here 166 days and averaged a patrol or two every 4 days, it can be said that each of the Doc's have averaged about 50 patrols while we have been in Djibouti - this number when coupled with the amount of training at the various ranges which requested our coverage puts us outside the safety of these wire and sand laden walls almost every other day...

If that isn't reason enough to wear Sapi-Plates, then I don't know what is...Semper fidelis!

George Carlin on Aging

Usually this is where you would often find my "Sunday Sermon" laden with some sort of Gospel According To Peter. But there has been a change.

I have invited a guest speaker of sorts or rather his wit and wisdom that somehow managed to land smack in the middle of an email sent to me from a friend. The rampage of logic was so basically simple and the message so profound that I just had to share it with all of you as a reminder that age is just a number and that living your life to its fullest is all you really need to worry about...

George Carlin's Views on Aging ...
Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids?!?! If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions. "How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key.

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead. "How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . . you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . . . YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! “…he TURNED; we had to throw him out.” There's no fun now, you're just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away! Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone. But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again.

"I'm 100 and a half!"

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out non-essential numbers. This includes age, weight and
height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay "them "

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family,
pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

ALWAYS REMEMBER: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

And if you don't send this to at least 10 people in the next 10 minutes, who cares?

But, DO share this with someone as a reminder that we must all live life to its fullest each and every day!!

A Change In The Weather

The weather here lately has been a bit out of the ordinary...

The days are sometimes hazy, dust-filled or downright cloudy. The heat it seems may have made an early retreat because it does not seem to be nearly as hot as it has been in the past.

Hold on a tic and allow me to re-phrase that: It hasn't been feeling as hot as it has been in the past (there we go!).

The majority of the days since June have been roughly the same. On my way to work, the breeze shifts from East to West as the moist ocean breezes gives way to the dry, warm and sandy desert winds. By sunset, the pattern has reversed itself and the evening winds sweep back inland from the ocean amidst the very tropical and unseasonably moist midsummer night squalls. To be quite honest, the break in the weather has been a welcome relief. It has been refreshing to make my way around the camp getting drenched in the sudden and sometimes cool down-pour. There have nightly "light shows" as the electricity bounces from cell to cell filling up the night time sky with bright orange and yellow flashes of lightning accompanied with booming rolls and peals of thunder.

In a country as extremes as Africa, with all of its wild and exotic flavors, smells and sights, the storms have really been rather mild to say the least. I have seen far worse and more violent storms in California and the Midwest. It has been a rather pleasant indulgence to hear the sheets of rain falling upon the roofs of our tents or seeing the light spectacle on an almost nightly basis. It seems that is all we have been talking about as of late - other than the obvious discussion about when we will leave Africa and return home.

There is a mystic beauty to be found here in Djibouti. I wish I had the freedom to come and go as I please and see all the many places in and around here - there is so much to see and I have not found any time or had the privilege to venture outside these gates except when riding in the back of a vehicle going to and from a weapons range or on patrol. Never the less, there is an interesting story unwinding all around us here, and it seems that we are merely a footnote at the bottom of this page, but a mark and a note none the less.

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever envision myself coming to Africa. This is a treasured time indeed. And though I have lost time with my family, friends and loved ones back home, I am richer in spirit, wisdom and adventure. When it comes time to leave, I will be able to look back on all the pictures and remember the laughter, the smells, the sites and the sounds of this far away and enigmatic land. My eyes and I will have satisfied an ache within to explore and learn about a place that just 23 years ago was only a dream of mine- to safari in Africa.

I can certainly check that box now...

It seems that this adventure here is drawing to an end, and I am not sad in the least. I have had fun and made the best as I often do. There is little else to be said or done. A change will be made soon and our return to civilization is inevitable and welcomed much like the change in the weather here has been. This adventure in Africa may be coming to an end soon, but the real "safari" in this life is just beginning...So be it!

Just Another Day...Well, Sort Of...

Yes, It's my year at one and forty and I am still here to tell the tale! So far so good...

From and including Friday, August 6, 1965 up to, but not including Sunday, August 6, 2006 it is 14,975 days from the start date to the end date:

or 41 years excluding the end date...

or 1,293,840,000 seconds...

or 21,564,000 minutes...

or 359,400 hours...

or 2139 weeks (rounded down).

Really, being in Africa can be kind of a strange way to spend a birthday, but strange birthdays are not uncommon to me. Some of the many strange and wonderful birthdays I've spent on Earth include a trip to Dodger Stadium in 1986 in which I caught a homerun ball; I've witnessed a full moon peek out amidst a mid-summer night squall while having a beer on a sundeck in Manhattan Beach after a long work night inspire me to write a poem; I have rapelled off a 5 story building in Japan and watched a 3 hour fireworks display in 1994; I have been a guest to several "surprise" birthdays in my honor and had dinners of almost every flavor and caliber that can be imagined. I spent my birthday in 2000 at Fort Benning, Georgia getting beat down by Army Drill Sergeants; I ate a homemade Tunnel of Fudge cake in the BAS on a late night shift in Iraq in 2003; last year I had chance to fall out of a perfectly good aircraft and free-fall for 60 seconds as the wind rushed in my ears, my heart pounded in my chest and my eyes took in everything it could possibly see!

Since beginning my military career in July of 1990 I have had the pleasure to spend 9 birthdays at home with family and loved ones - the other 8 have been with the military either on deployment or during training exercises. I am not weeping as an outcast or wringing my hands in regret - quite the contrary. Although I do miss the warmth, kindness and consideration of well-wishers during a birthday celebrating with family; I have come to accept the less than ordinary occasions and circumstances that come with celebrating a birthday while deployed overseas. For all of the unique and cherished moments, I would not change them or exchange them for anything - the choices I have made dictate such extreme celebrations, and so I must learn to adapt and improvise in order to fill the empty minutes and seconds with as much celebrating as possible!

Today, during the celebration of my year at one and forty, I have received many birthday cards and gifts from family, children and friends - in fact, I received my Mom & Pops gifts in the mail today - thank you for the camera gear and Dodger baseball video! But really, I'm just happy to be here where I am. I am thankful for the air I breathe, the food I eat and the new day which greets my eyes. I am thankful for the love of many people including my wife, my children, family and friends - they have been powerful influences in the changing and shaping of my life and my existence for what it has become, what it continues to evolve into and what it will be in the future. My celebration today is not about another birthday but more about another day of living. The gift of life I have been given from God and my parents is the one gift I treasure most of all! And what is more, I am glad to have this opportunity to share this day with you across the many miles. Even though I cannot be there with you in person, you are all here with me in spirit and I think that counts for so much more...

As it stands, it's another "Happy Birthday" for me! The day will begin and end with an absolute minimum of alcohol-laden speeches and embarrassing pictures. The real news for this Sunday, August 6th of 2006 is that it will turn out to be another in a long-line of 156 carbon-copy days here in Djibouti which suits me just fine. The day will however be added to the long list of many undeniably unique and special birthdays I have managed to spend throughout the world and throughout my brief existence on this crazy, wonderful planet.

Thank you all for making it so special indeed and please save me a piece of cake, okay?