Day 2

I just realized that my titles... Day 1, Day 2... really are not the days that the Air Force is going to count as my being there... my 123 days starts on 29 April... the day I'm supposed to get over there. I wonder if come August, when I'm doing these blogs and counting the days on my own calender of interupted life, if my count will depress me and make me even more anxious to come home...

Sitting here listening to 80's music on my iPod... the best invention ever. Much like grape tomatoes to a salad a couple years ago, I'm very happy with my little upgrades in technology I allowed myself to splurge on for this trip.

I guess if my grandpa can have a tomato garden in his Vietnam hooch, then I can have all my gadgets.

I bought a new digital camera... my old one's battery stunk the zoom was sticky and it was too heavy/bulky... my new one carries 1 GB of pictures/video... which I don't think I'll ever be able to fill... I took some videos of friends and family saying good bye to me at the last minute before leaving... I love that I can take these little images with me for a pick me up when needed. Mom... Hannah, Jackie... all did one and I love watching them. Thanks!

My iPod is my new best friend... and thanks to Darryl's countless donations to my music collection and Todd's "mix tape" DVD... I have years of music to keep me occupied in a credit card sized device. How did all those boys in Vietnam ever survive without one of these?

And my biggest unnecessary/necessary splurge is my little 5.5 lb paperthin laptop. I never knew how propogated wireless is now... I can access from starbucks, my hotel (which is where I am now), the airport... etc. the Internet/email... how convienent is that? When I get over there, if I hand over this machine to the comm nazi's I'm told they will connect it to the base's internet and I can surf in my room and connect to the movie server to watch DVDs over the net...

I just got a call on my cell from "over there" the guy I'm replacing... I emailed him from the road to tell him of our little delay... How on earth did people survive before all this technology? Maybe they just did less... or were less efficient. Pretty soon, maybe deployments will be unnecessary and I can just be deployed from my laptop in the starbucks drinking my Grande Soy Chai Latte... I'm going to miss those over there... but where I'm going, maybe there's a starbucks... There is a Chili's... Imagine that, deployed baby-back baby-back baby-back ribs. If it provides me comfort, I'll never knock a chain restaurant again.

Anyway... off to lunch with Dale to catch up on AirPower over Hampton Roads... my old stomping grounds etc... I miss airshows. This is the first Langley air show I'm going to miss in like 5 years. Oh well...

cheers,
d