Here it is Tuesday, and we still can’t see the mountains. The wind has pretty much died down, and it was intermittent yesterday. But the dust cloud thrown up in the air on Saturday remains. Which reminds me … how many of you could actually see the sun in the photo I posted on Saturday? If you right-click on the image and open it up to its full 2Mb size, it’s easier to spot as a small dark circle.
The wind and dust were bad enough on Saturday night to preempt our weekly Herf. Three of us hardy souls clustered Sunday night by the data center, inside a chain-link fence wrapped in green sniper shield, which helped break up the wind. We managed to actually enjoy the smokes and hash out several issues bedeviling us here on Bagram.
On a side note, on Sunday night I smoked an Arturo Fuente 8-5-8 (natural, for those curious minds out there) that I bought in the exchange here on base. They stock a fair number of non-Cuban stogies here, but there is no humidification whatsoever. The cigars are left in their boxes on the shelves to dry out. I grabbed a couple sticks two weeks ago after determining they hadn’t dried out too badly and threw them into the humidor. Two weeks of recovery and, aside from a wrapper leaf that started to loosen, it smoked quite nicely.
Pizza night was disrupted on Saturday. Not by the winds, but by the owners of the grill, who came over from their own portion of Area 82 to reclaim it. Apparently, it was on loan to DISO. Undeterred, my elite black ops team hit the road Saturday night and procured, among other things, a 55-gallon drum, a grate, and 18 bags of charcoal, and we’ve got a line on some angle iron. It’s amazing the things you can acquire when you drive around at night in an ATV. We’ve made arrangements for some local workers who doing a construction contract here on Area 82 to hook us up with some welding services and make us a new grill.
Yesterday, I made a major contribution in the Stupid Human Tricks Department. A half-dozen of us were piled into the Land Cruiser, driving to dinner. After turning onto the main drag, we rolled past a particularly attractive young lady from our compound. She works with one of the other three-letter agencies and, having seen her in uniform, I know she’s in the Norwegian Army. Amid the general rash of comments and proclamations of undying love and admiration erupting in the vehicle, this cute young blonde inspired me to do an "air" Bronsky. She chose that exact moment to turn and look at all of us, as though she’d heard the distinctive sounds. And she smiled at us. I’m going to hear about that one until I leave in August.
If nothing else, life here is always interesting.
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