My Day

My day started early today (well, early by the nocturnal standards of my life in theater - I rarely make it to bed before 4 a.m.). My peaceful and colorful dreams were interrupted by the klaxon sound of my cell phone - Army business, of course. When I hung up, I noticed an eerie silence in my room. A few seconds of analysis led to the answer...my air conditioner was not running. This is a bad, bad development in the austere desert environment. It turned out that the air conditioner was not working because the electricity was off. This is not an uncommon occurrence. All of our buildings and housing are powered by large, gas-fueled generators that require intensive maintenance to keep working. Periodic power shut downs are common as the local maintenance teams work on the generators.

No problem, I thought to myself. I would just use this as an opportunity to go into work a little early and get a little more done. Maybe even get ahead of some things, right? Wrong. I stepped into the shower, turned the handle, and discovered that the water was off as well. This is also a common occurrence here. Our water is trucked in daily by large tanker trucks that go from place to place on the post topping off the various water reservoirs that feed the pipes.

Note: This daily water ration has taught me a great deal about water conservation. As we have a finite amount of water to use every day, everyone has an obligation to be aqua-frugal. The practice of "combat showers" is enforced here. That is as follows: turn the water on, get wet, turn off the water - soap and shampoo - turn the water back on and rinse - turn the water off again. 

Now, I am OK with the power going out and I am OK with the water being off - the two together...not so much. Maybe I've just gotten entirely too comfortable with my meager creature comforts. I should probably just think about my brothers who were here in 2003 and often went weeks without a shower. Nah, I'll just bitch about it on my blog.

So, I end up doing some basic personal hygiene (wash face, shave, brush teeth) with a one-liter bottle of water. Works well enough. Since I couldn't make coffee - another creature comfort I rely heavily on - I figured I would just stop off at the Green Beans Coffee and grab a MOAC. The MOAC, for those of you who are wondering, is short for the Mother Of All Coffees. It is a lovely invention developed by the good people at Green Beans Coffee. It consists of a 24-ounce cup of their house coffee with FOUR shots of espresso dumped in. It is a smoker that is guaranteed to wipe away even the most well-earned fatigue.

Approaching the Bean, I carefully listen for the sounds of generators - I don't know how far reaching this power outage is, after all. Good - the power is on here. I walk inside and ask Haseem, the Pakistani coffee guy for a MOAC. I leaf through a copy of Stars and Stripes as he loads up the espresso for brewing. The next thing I know, we are standing in the dark. The power outage has followed me to the Bean. After a few minutes, I throw in the towel and leave.

Luckily, I was able to get to my CP (Command Post, you civilians) and brew some rich, black Starbucks. It was a shaky start, though. I hope for better things tomorrow.

Mahalo for now.  It's midnight and that means it is time to head over to the gym.

Cheers!