Month 12 Day 5

Notebook entry

26 reports given, taking car, water and sprinkler hose.

Journal entry

had my sleep in, cut my hair, talked to Suzan on Skype until her camera went nuts, and then left to get a picture taken with the other officers (the SD card died last time).  One thing that struck me as odd.  The Colonel asked the combat camera Sgt "is the memory card working this time" about half of the officers laughed, the careerists.  They laughed not because it was funny, but because the Col said it.  Wow how I don't want to be like them. 

After the pic came back picked up Brawny from the CCOC, ate lunch at DFAC 2, that was nice.  Came back and read the news.  I didn't do a ton of work on career stuff, or MBA stuff.  My brain was pretty dead. 

I watched Bruce Almighty.  Jim Kerry get's God's powers for a little while and antics ensue.  Not high-brow, but good for a few laughs.  Jennifer anniston still looks great, I don't think she ages. 

I cleaned my weapon and went to chow.

Capt Nowak flipped out on one of the Afghans for taking water from out new water box.  to be fair it wasn't marked, but a logical inferrence could have told you that this was not the right one to use to clean your hand after wiping your ass given that it is the only one on the camp and immediatly in front of the Marine compound.

Capt Arthur asked me to put the ANA well antics into the book.  On the 4th some soldiers broke into the well house, took out the new hose, sprayed out their vehicles and then slashed holes in the side of the hose and used it as a sprinkler the run through.  Capt Arthur was irate and wanted to restrict their water use for two days.  Not because they are wasting water in the middle of the desert, but for fear of the system.  The LtCol was not on board.  Capt Arthur's fear was that the pump would burn out.  Since this is not a gravity fed system, the pump is the only thing that provides pressure, and the pump can burn out.  The Afghan contractor who built the thing was too stupid to realize that you can't just put in a series of pumps and hope the water flows perfectly.   Capt Arthur wants to restrict their water to ensure they are water independant from the USMC.  That's the trick though, if you control all of their decisions, then are they really independant?  We are trying to wean them off of bottled water, so Capt Arthur is afraid of a setback WRT that, if the pump burns out the LtCol will be pissed, Capt Arthur will be ordered to repair it (the Afghans don't have the knowledge), and the bottled water will have to come back on, but the LtCol doesn't want to control their actions to get them weaned off of it.  These 'problems of extraction' are endemic, how are we ever going to get out of here?

The General has been taking to getting a ride from the road by his office to the new 'mosque' about 100 meters away.  He can figure out how to do that.