Characters, July 4, 2010

We had a fairly normal day today, 4 July.  Sunday is normally a half day, which means about 10 hours of work.  They said the afternoon was a “relaxed” schedule, but they didn’t explain what that meant, or who would do the work if we didn’t, so most of us worked.  They held a 5K (ish) this morning, and they had a formation and ceremony followed by a bbq for dinner.  I wasn’t up to doing the run…still nursing my pulled hamstring.  I’ve been walk/running and bicycling instead.  I helped our ammo folks fly a bunch of flags over the compound, so they can send them to all the task forces with a certificate with today’s date.  That was pretty cool.

Here are a couple of new quotes that I’ve learned here.  As you can see, I work with some real characters.

Instead of “the cat is out of the bag” say, “the shit is out of the horse now”.

Instead of “I get what you are saying” say, “I’m smelling what you are stepping in”.

If you’re going to spend your time out in the middle of the street, don’t get upset if the bus runs you over and you end up underneath it.

That thing could pucker a lemon’s ass, it’s so sour.

Two puppies gnawing on a bone can do a whole lot better than one.

You can’t un-impregnate this thing.

The horse has left the stable unbridled.

It’s like attacking a Russian fort with a mop handle and two blind rats.

I know we have the 900 pound gorilla in the room to work, but don’t forget about the two chimpanzees.

I've smelled that dog before.

Believe deeds, not words.

And my favorite:  There is no "I" in teamwork but there are 3 "U"s in shut the fuck up.

Here are a couple of the characters I work with:



This is some of the USFOR-A Mobility Shop that I am a Liaison Officer too.  These are the ones that I spend 14 or more hours a day with.  Note the hedge hog up front.  His name is Meert.

These are my walking buddies, and my goofing off buddies.  We do laps around the compound during the day to stay sane.  We call them prison laps.

These are my fellow CDDOC Liaison Officers.  Two of us are at USFOR-A and the rest are at the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters.  This photo is taken in a garden at ISAF.  A remarkable difference between US bases and NATO basis is that NATO bases have cafés and gardens everywhere, and US bases are dust, concrete and pavement.  I do prefer US chow halls to NATO chow halls though.