One of the things I said when this whole blog started a few months ago was: You have to do whatever you can to keep your sanity and make life bearable … I didn’t say that? Well, I should have. Being out here, you can lose yourself in tons of mindless daily tasks to make the days go by. That being said, those tasks need to have a common goal, or you will look back and find that you’ve accomplished nothing throughout the day. Most of my mindless daily tasks revolve around making my living arrangements as comfortable as possible. Truthfully, I don’t spend that much time in my room, but the time that is here, I want to be relaxing. Thankfully, I discovered one of the tricks early on in this venture: Guys going home want to GIVE you their stuff. Now I’m not saying they want to give you everything for free, but they will give more free stuff than you expect.
The day started out with my preparations for my first trip ‘outside the wires.’ I was to head from Camp Victory to the International Zone for a meeting. Now I know guys who’ve been over here are saying, that’s not REALLY outside the wires, you’re traveling in an armored bus on a highway that’s lined with HUGE cement barriers for less than ten miles.” I didn’t say it was the most dangerous trip, just my first time outside. I arrived at the office at six in the morning, put on my armor and helmet, and readied to go. Just then, Kenny arrived to tell me that the meeting was rescheduled for tomorrow … couldn’t have told me that ten minutes ago, huh … before I put on ALL of the armor. Oh well, Kenny and I found ourselves in a strange place, we had nothing scheduled for the whole morning. We decided to head over to one of the contract equipment install sites to meet some folks I’d be working with. Of course, since we hadn’t planned this … they weren’t there. This is where we get to my living arrangements. As we were walking around aimlessly, we spotted some soldiers installing equipment on Humvees. That, however, wasn’t really what caught our eyes – it was the wooden crates the equipment had arrived in. The crates were surprisingly similar in size to a coffee table. Normally, in my squadron days, we would have snuck up there and stolen a crate. However, being older, wiser, and more fearful of retribution, we walked up to the site manager to inquire about the crates. He took one look at the crates in question and said, “you don’t want those, you want the good ones in the shop, take as many as you want.” A quick trip to Haji-mart for some hinges and a hasp, and I have brand new coffee table.
It doesn’t seem like much to the casual observer, but it makes the trailer-half feel more like a room. Kenny and I went by his trailer to pick up some other stuff, and he (after seeing my room) commented that I might want some more of his stuff. His shelves, carpets, bike, etc. All for free, he’s already getting money from me for his TV and fridge, but he doesn’t have room to take any of the other stuff home (nor does he want to – he got most of it for free from people prior to him. So, thanks to Kenny, I will soon have a trailer that would make Martha Stewart gag (but I think she’d give me an ‘A’ for effort). Until tomorrow.
-Grease out.
The day started out with my preparations for my first trip ‘outside the wires.’ I was to head from Camp Victory to the International Zone for a meeting. Now I know guys who’ve been over here are saying, that’s not REALLY outside the wires, you’re traveling in an armored bus on a highway that’s lined with HUGE cement barriers for less than ten miles.” I didn’t say it was the most dangerous trip, just my first time outside. I arrived at the office at six in the morning, put on my armor and helmet, and readied to go. Just then, Kenny arrived to tell me that the meeting was rescheduled for tomorrow … couldn’t have told me that ten minutes ago, huh … before I put on ALL of the armor. Oh well, Kenny and I found ourselves in a strange place, we had nothing scheduled for the whole morning. We decided to head over to one of the contract equipment install sites to meet some folks I’d be working with. Of course, since we hadn’t planned this … they weren’t there. This is where we get to my living arrangements. As we were walking around aimlessly, we spotted some soldiers installing equipment on Humvees. That, however, wasn’t really what caught our eyes – it was the wooden crates the equipment had arrived in. The crates were surprisingly similar in size to a coffee table. Normally, in my squadron days, we would have snuck up there and stolen a crate. However, being older, wiser, and more fearful of retribution, we walked up to the site manager to inquire about the crates. He took one look at the crates in question and said, “you don’t want those, you want the good ones in the shop, take as many as you want.” A quick trip to Haji-mart for some hinges and a hasp, and I have brand new coffee table.
It doesn’t seem like much to the casual observer, but it makes the trailer-half feel more like a room. Kenny and I went by his trailer to pick up some other stuff, and he (after seeing my room) commented that I might want some more of his stuff. His shelves, carpets, bike, etc. All for free, he’s already getting money from me for his TV and fridge, but he doesn’t have room to take any of the other stuff home (nor does he want to – he got most of it for free from people prior to him. So, thanks to Kenny, I will soon have a trailer that would make Martha Stewart gag (but I think she’d give me an ‘A’ for effort). Until tomorrow.
-Grease out.
1 comment:
Can I "order" a coffee table? Shipping is free as long as I pick it up with my truck :) Nice....I have coffee table envy!!!
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