It seems like Day Sixty should feel like some kind of milestone yet it doesn't. It is just another day in Oz. It wasn't too bad of a day, though. No more shopping for camel blankets today. I spent most of it within the confines of my office. Mid-morning, a ground attack on the base...for training...was going on so we were locked down for quite awhile so I wasn't able to get out and get to my meeting. Thanks to a technology called "Adobe Connect," I was able to get online through our secure network and participated. Outside, armored vehicles were barricading the street, soldiers were in full body armor, and barbed wire was being stretched around our building. Little did I know, but there are folks within our building identified to protect it in events like this...should they really happen. I am housed within an Army brigade...although we're not actually part of them. Basically, they provide us support...like office space, computer/network access and security, and any other "creature comforts" we need to do the mission we've been tasked with. They're great and many meetings I am part of happen right here as they are a major part of the sustaining force here in the country...which involves us and my particular job quite a bit.
Mid-afternoon, I connected with Tin Man and Scarecrow again. They spent the night at their cousins' home last night and once they were up, I got a text from my brother. After I talked with my brother for awhile, I had the pleasure of talking to each one of my girls privately. It is key to have them walk into a room where no one else is if I actually want to have a good, quality conversation with them. Otherwise, there are too many distractions. It was great. One thing we always do back in Kansas is pray bedside each night. I kept doing that while on the Yellow Brick Road but once I left the United States and the massive time change took place, that stopped. It left a big gap in something very important to all 3 of us. Today, though, we had the time so instead of praying before bedtime, we had our first morning prayer before school. It was priceless time and time that got me choked up...again. Luckily, I kept it together because if they would've heard that in my voice (which Scarecrow did before...she's too smart!), they would've gotten all upset. I wanted them to just remember our conversation together and be happy about it. It's amazing the power they have over me. "Mr. Tough Guy" me just crumbles when we talk and have that quality time.
The rest of the day was filled with another conference call with folks back in the States and a first call to my eventual relief. We're WAY ahead of that relief showing up here but it's good to know who it is and actually have a conversation about the job and answer his many questions. Once he does show up, we have a max of a 14 day turnover then I'm out of here. But, that's far into the future. It's still nice to have that tiny light at the end of the tunnel, even if it is very faint right now.
Dinner and relaxing in front of the tube for the rest of the night defined the evening. I took another pass at running tonight. Too dang windy tonight with all the blowing dust and filth out there. I just didn't have the tolerance to deal with that tonight. No biggee...it was a "fairly" low calorie day again. Well...maybe not too low...we'll just call it average. I think those strawberry Twizzlers killed it.
Goodnight, everyone.
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