Love design!!! I just came across your blog and wanted to say that Ive really...It Is A Bright Cold Day In Al Asad, and the Clocks Are Striking 1300
Posted by Erik Rupard on March 27th, 2008
Okay, not quite 1300, but it is bright and cold here, which is an unexpected surprise. There is a part of my brain which knows that, sooner rather than later, I will be walking around post in my manditorily long-sleeved uniform in the 120-degree heat, sweating bullets down the side of my shiny head. It is this same part of my brain which is embracing today’s cool temperature, along with the nice, fairly-clean (read: less dusty than usual) wind which has been whistling down the halls of my clinic all day.
By the way, first one to get the literary reference in today’s title wins.
I have a few essays on the workbench, but not quite ready for prime-time. This includes one about my ongoing search for a suitably accessible and usable latrine on post, a post about the plodding sameness of the days here and how the soldiers combat the stir fever which this threatens to create, and a discussion of the medics themselves—my lifeblood here on Al Asad, and the source of 90% of my daily human contact. How did each of these men and women ended up working as an Army medic serving in Iraq? Each one has an interesting story, often poignant. Look for those longer pieces in the future (or, not at all—depends on where things naturally take us from here).
Today, I have a few brain droppings for you, on seemingly random subjects, though as I read back over this on final edit, they don’t seem so random to me any more.
1) I bought a bike two days ago, from a SPC (E-4) who came to my clinic for a post-deployment health assessment. 60 bucks, included the locks and a nice Schwinn helmet. It needed a bit of work, but 36 hours later, I was taking this fine machine out past one of the checkpoints, and near the flight line. as I got about two miles away from the busier part of the post, I looked around and saw no people at all, nor any signs of them, except for the pyramid-shaped “yugo” bunkers which I have described previously. Looked like a lunar landscape to me, except with birds circling (not circling ME, mom!) and those crazy, whacked-out pyramid thingies. When I got to the flatter area, the wind started whipping me and my poor little bike around like Dorothy, and so I flipped around and headed back to the main area. I’ll be taking that trip again, soon, on a less windy day. The bike, with brakes I had just recently adjusted, help up pretty well. I have a severe case of “bicycle bottom” today—need to toughen up that backside a bit.
2) When I went to pick up the bike at the Specialist’s can, I was reminded how good we medical types have it. He and another soldier were crammed into a room about 3/4ths the size of mine, and they had clearly given into the dust many many moons ago. Which means they have been here that long. I go home before either of them does.
3) The food here is really, really, really bad. Really. I could add a few more “really”s there, but my English teacher wouldn’t count them towards my word total. I know that you, dear reader, are saying to yourself something like “Didn’t Erik tell us the food was great?” Answer: the food in Kuwait was very good, but remember, I was absolutely starving from the 24 hours of travel by the time I got to Kuwait. Maybe it tasted better than it was. All I know, is that I ate twice at the DFAC today, and it was not good either time. Lunch was particle-board (a.k.a. chunked and formed”) turkey, like those Jennie-O turkey rolls I used to like when I was a kid. (I also liked the taste of boogers when I was a kid, let me remind you. Personally, after today’s lunch, if given the option, I’d take the boogers. They would at least have more non-synthetic protein.) Even slathering these pieces of turkey plywood with gravy, Texas Petes, Tabasco—in short, all of my “hide the flavor” tricks; none of these worked, gosh help me. Everyone at my table had something different for lunch, and we all left there with the same unsatisfied, slightly sickly look on our faces. Dinner was “Cordon Bleu.” That is what it said on the menu. Before I ordered, I did not think to ask what poor creature had been “Cordon-Bleued” (if you’ll excuse the awkward verb). I still don’t know. Again, it was particle-board, and would probably claim to be (mostly) chicken, but I left there wondering if perhaps on the shooting range earlier that day, there had been some sort of mishap with an M9 pistol and a camel, and the US government was trying to make the best of it, recouping their $5000 simoleons. Lorri, I’m looking forward to that jambalaya in September. I’ll be piling it high and deep.
4) You may have read on the always-reliable wikipedia that Al Asad has a Burger King, a Subway, and a Pizza Hut on post. Sounds like a reasonable alternative to the DFAC, but there is one problem, insurmountable to my feeble brain: the workers there are “regulars” at our clinic, and many have come in this week with hacking coughs, runny noses, ear infections, warts, you name it. To be fair, I have not heard of even one infection coming from the food there, and the workers aren’t unclean, just ill. But once you give antibiotics to a person, you want some time to pass before he prepares you a meal, especially in this The Land Of Non-Potable Water.
5) Our laundry service just went from 3-day to 2-day turnaround. This is nice, as I just happen to be a member of two groups (possibly the ONLY two groups in the world—you can figure out which ones they are) which require special undergarments, and I just can’t seem to keep enough on hand, always end up having to re-use a t-shirt before the next batch comes back. This will be remedied soon, as I have the appropriate undies on order as I write this.
6) Finally, I am really enjoying the Barack/Hillary circus. Once upon a time, I wrote a weekly column for a paper in Utah (and later, a larger paper) in which I often made the argument that we spend too much time on Presidential news, especially during election season. At that time (mid-90s), the President was becoming more and more irrelevant, and the Speaker of the House was actually Time’s man of the year once. It seemed, I wrote, that it didn’t really matter who became President, but rather which party was in power, writing the laws. That is very clearly NOT true today, something I can say with some conviction as I sit in my bunker in Iraq, 7000 miles away from my family, serving in a war which began 5 years ago, and which, as of Easter Sunday, has cost 4000 American military members their lives. Where will those sacrifices play into the history of this troubled region (and, by extension, the world), we do not yet know, but one thing is very clear to me: these days, it does indeed matter who becomes our President.
March 27th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
I have an idea about what you mean when you say that your food is terrible. 2 years ago my school drew up a contract with a food program called Chartwells. When they first started they made it sound wonderful-A different theme everyday, all these fancy foods that they had put on menus outside the cafeteri- It actually started out pretty good but has since slipped into every day carboard (chicken) patty on a bun with soggy potato sticks (french “fries”), old cut- up carboard patty salad, cut up cardboard patty wraps (all adorned with the usual hairs and various assortments of burns/etc.) and of course American Chop Suey. All though this is due to the push for “healthy foods” as i have heard from people who work at buisnesses where Chartwells runs their cafeteria and they say its quite good.
Well, im glad youre doing good, im happy thatt you have a bike.
Stay safe,
Christian
March 27th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
umm . . . Erik . . . I e-mailed you earlier today to say that I felt shy about intruding in your family’s life as chronicled in this blog . . . but . . . might this have been the literary source which you were referencing?????
mary in pennsylvania
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It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
George Orwell, “1984″, first sentence
English essayist, novelist, & satirist (1903 – 1950)
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March 27th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Mary,
Please join theRupard nutters. We don’t have a Mary and they always sound really sweet. Plus, we can obviously use your brainpower. I am Erik’s older sister by 3 years and as the official oldest girl, you are cordially invited to our family blog. Get my email from Erik if you would like.
Erik, Crt calls for more pictures. I wish I could send you some home cooking. Also, don’t be fooled by Christian, he gets a gourmet lunch made for him,courtesy of me almost every morning, so he has no complaints. Only when they eat all the bj’s lunch food do the kids actually have to buy their poison from school. love, Melissa
March 28th, 2008 at 2:15 am
Mary:
Spot on. One of the best opening lines in all of literature, as it set the ominous tone for what was to come.
Not many writers like Orwell these days, as good-quality anti-government (1984) and/or anti-leftist/socialist (Animal Farm) writing has been disallowed by the arbiters of fashion. Ask Mark Helprin, who has written brilliantly over the past decade, but has received little mainstream recognition since his first novel (after which he revealed his libertarian political bent). Orwell’s best work, and most revealing look at the follies of big, oppressive government is in his brilliant autobiographical essay “Shooting An Elephant.” Good stuff.
I can’t help but wax political every now and then…
March 28th, 2008 at 7:11 am
Mary,
Where in PA do you live and how do you know Erik? I am Erik’s little sister, Becky. I live in Reading, PA (actually in Sinking Spring). We are happy to have you come aboard.
Erik,
So good to hear from you. Things here are good. We had a great time with the fam at Easter. Much good food, laughter and marshmallow peeps. We all spoke about how much we missed you and how fortunate we are to have this daily blog to keep us from needing to guess and worry about where you are. (We still worry some). Love you, Beckles
March 28th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Wow — do I ever feel embraced!
Erik — well, having read my way through the Science Fiction and Fantasy shelves of the Public Library in the Bronx, NY, during my childhood and early teen years, I was so excited that you posted such a memorable opening sentence, to the point that I overcame my reticence by openly joining this conversation (blush!).
Melissa — Well, I don’t know if you-all are quite ready to accept a 66-and-a-half-year-old newly retired college Professor of Communication Studies as your sibling . . . but I do appreciate the offer. LOLOLOL !
Becky in Reading — Hello, near-neighbor, Bloomsburg here! When I first applied for this job more than twenty years ago (I was teaching in Milwaukee, WI, at the time) my midwest friends and I had never heard of this place .
also to Becky — your brother Erik was a formidable presence for a while on bulletin boards in which I participated related to eye problems . . . (I was/am “gloomsburg” on SurgicalEyes, mary on LaserMyEye/D’Eyealogues, and use my full name on Dry Eye Talk). Erik posted a bit ago on DETalk saying that he was deployed to Iraq and offering the link to this blog. I have read it every day so far, and feel that I “know” you-all in some profound ways.
Erik — little did I imagine when you posted that the “first to get the literary reference wins,” that the prize would be such immediate and warm invitations to join your stateside family!
mary in pennsylvania
(MKBadami@aol.com)
March 28th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Hello Mary, nice to meet you. I’ve been running 100 mph since yesterday, first, to a square foot gardening class (Erik is already excited to come home in Sept. to salsa makings) and now packing our girls up for a camping venture to Magnolia state park. It’s 80 degrees in Ga today. The first hot one in a long series of hot ones to come (no doubt).
Welcome to the blog and feel free to educate. I was wondering what classes you taught in WI. I have a little communications under my belt as that was my first major in college before switching to English and meeting up with you-know-who: our beloved author, E J Rupard himself. I worked for PBS back then in Master control and in the studio. It was the best job I’ve ever had or will have besides taking care of my kids which I love to do: I honestly feel pretty spoiled in life. Were you at all in the production end?
Our daughter Maddy (17 tomorrow) arrived home from school and announced very recently that she wanted to major in English lit. eventually to teach AP lit. as she really admires her teacher this year and she quite seriously can create analogies out of anything ie. a mollusk, piece of tape et al….I think now we’re back to Theatre and media arts for the moment though… I was briefly so excited. It would be so perfectly fitting for her to teach English literature since Erik and I met in our Enlgish literature 251 class at BYU, what seems like eons ago. Back then he was primed to teach English at the college level and did briefly before deciding on med. school.
Very nice to meet you. Erik says your husband served in Vietnam and you had some kind of a radio program.
Well the girls just walked in and we are officially off on an adventure. I’m not a camper…. Should be interesting. Pray for me.
March 29th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Dear Lorri-sue (and others, of course) –
Thank you so much for welcoming me! I figured that one way to put me into context in this internet extended family might be to reproduce the two e-mails which I sent to Erik earlier this month. Hope this doesn’t take up too much bandwidth (whatever that is).
mary in pennsylvania
MKBadami@aol.com
Also a “p.s.” to Christian: Erik e-mailed me in reply and interpreted your message to him. I still remember when my family got its first telephone (yes, an ANALOG DIAL TELEPHONE) about 60 years ago, and whenever possible I have whimsically used parts of that first phone number as my “password” when navigating this e-territory.
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Tuesday, March 13th
Erik –
. . . I am the former wife of a military man who served a year in hot steamy Vietnam back in 1972. He was a JAG officer, and allegedly not on the “front lines” — but as you well know, there is no such thing as not being in combat when you are in a combat-ridden country. Jim got through his 13 month assignment, and although we divorced thereafter, we remain friendly (if not exactly friends) in mutual concern over welfare of our children, who are now ages 44 and 42. Your blog brought me so many memories of a pre-internet age, where our family (myself, my children, and my mother, all of whom stayed in Germany where I was teaching for the overseas campus of the University of Maryland and was declared “head of household” in Jim’s absence) exchanged little photo albums which took weeks to arrive, sent audiotapes through APO/FPO mail, and on one extraordinary occasion, got to talk via military transmission: “hello, Jim, this is Mary. OVER.” “hello, Mary this is Jim. I can’t believe we are talking to one another. OVER.”
. . .
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Thursday, March 27th
Erik –
How good to hear from you! Honest!
I’ve been reading your blog at least once a day. Honest!
I am still assembling my version of your “care package.” Honest! (It had included yellow Peeps and jellybeans until Easter Sunday morning, when a last-minute visit to friends with children required a measure of sacrifice. Sorry about that, but it was in a good cause! Honest!)
Although I am not by nature or practice a “shy” person, I must admit to feeling too reticent to add comments to your blog entries for now . . . it’s definitely a family-respect thing, and at least in part a technology-thing (for example, you got a reply from “Christian” who wrote: “Dr. Rupard, There is freeleech on Waffles so if there is anything you want/need let me know!” I HAVE NOT ONE CLUE, NOT ONE CLUE, ABOUT WHAT CHRISTIAN IS SAYING TO YOU. Honest!)
I worry that you will think that when I reminisce about my life and particularly my husband’s honorable service during the Vietnam era, that you will think that I am suggesting that your sacrifice is one whit less . . . which I don’t . . . but assuming that you and I are okay about that, I intend to write you an e-mail in the next few days reminiscing about my days as a once-a-week commentator on AFN radio in Germany with a 10-minute program, addressed to military wives, called “Girl Talk.”
. . .
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March 31st, 2008 at 3:42 pm
i am not looking if anyone got it. I finally got some internet here in hawaii ..the Maui airport.
the first line of _1984_
Also the title of the first record album I bought with my own money….by Van Halen….the record…not the book..it was by George Orwell.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Erik,
Enjoying the blog and now less concerned from an OPSEC perspective than your earlier posts (keep it that way). As a fellow Mark Helprin fan, I agree that is safe to say that his lack of recognition by the literary community is due to his politics. From the little I have read of him on Iraq, he doesn’t seem to have much positive to say to his right-wing brethren. I find this line from “A Brilliant Idea and His Own,” one of the stories in his collection “The Pacific” puts great perspective on the current situation: “War was like a series of windows, each narrower than the one preceding it, until in the end nothing was left of light or choice.”
In case your interested, working at WRAMC is starting to feel like being on the Titanic (except you know ahead of time that the ship will sink, unfortunately my lifeboat, otherwise known as the ADSO of 2011, is not leaving soon enough).
Be safe,
Brendan