The benefits of self-publishing ...

When I started the blog, I thought it would be a fun way to pass time and to share some of the experiences of being over here with the folks I know back home. It has turned into so much more than that! It’s actually a joy to go out and look at my everyday life, searching for things to pass on to my fanbase (hi Mom!). There is a side benefit of being your own editor and publisher … you can write whatever you want!

In today’s edition, I’m going to send out a word of thanks, in the most public venue available to me. I told you some time ago about my wife’s cousin … let’s call her Helen … cause, that’s her name. Helen is a research chemist for Chattem, Inc. Most of you have probably never heard of Chattem (I hadn’t), but you know their products – BullFrog, IcyHot, Selsun Blue, Gold Bond and others. Well, Helen’s care package arrived the other day. I was the envy of the office. People could not believe that someone who I’ve only met once before would take the time to accumulate all of these items from her lab/office and send them thousands of miles to a guy in Iraq. The kicker was, all of the items show that she really thought about what we’re going through out here and they all make sense (although, Helen must think I have some severe foot problems, because she sent a TON of the Gold Bond stuff … the foot stuff, not the other one). Then I shocked them all by saying that Helen did not send this care package for me, she sent it for us. Needless to say, Chattem’s customer base grew by a couple dozen today. One thing about military folk, we tend to reward those who take care of us. In this case, the best reward we can give is our loyalty to a company whose people obviously care about more than the bottom line. (by the way, you HAVE to try the BullFrog Mosquito Coast – It’s a SPF 30 sunscreen with DEET-free bug repellent built in – now that’s a cool idea, especially in a country where your biggest non-kinetic threat is sunburn, bugs and dehydration – I don’t think it’ll help with the dehydration thing, but give them a few years)(By the way, non-kinetic means anything other than high-speed chunks of assorted metal – bullets, mortars, bombs, etc.). So Helen, we salute you (and your company). Thanks for remembering us over here, it means the world.

-Grease out.

P.S. I know I went overboard today with the Google Gadget additions to the page, but they’re so darn cool