dog size mice.....

I'm not in tune any longer to what day of the week it is, however I do know its into Nov. and we've already lost one of our own.. The poor guy wasn't even on the ground for more than 48 hours.... Spr Marshall was in our sister sect within the troop, and well, to be quite frank, it sucks... I'm at a lost fro words in that respect. I'm still located at the "heart of darkness" and this place is polluted with IEDS and little mud huts that the Taliban are making them in. The engineers are always on the go, either patrolling or sitting on compounds waiting for their assistance. We've slept outside for the last 2 nights, on a suspect aliban compound in hopes of demolishing it in the next few days.... we'll see.... it will be the largest demolition ever in Afghanistan........ the place is totally reinforced and its calling for a very large percentage of the battel groups demolition supply......The guys seem to be adjusting really well, and are enthusiastic about upcoming tasks and jobs.... extremely eager to say the least.... A few are a little flinchy when it comes to tehir surroundings, and I can remember the first tour I had here and I was the same way. I guess, I've really begun to think like the enemy and hopefully this makes my job a little safer.... The first day out here I found myself digging in the road, on having a large hit on the detector... I dug down about 4 inches into the road and uncovered a propane tank......awhile later EOD showed up and uncovered the total device consisting of the tank, a 155mm artillery round, and a paint can full of home made explosives.....sketchy to say the least.....It's a little nerve racking and combined with the Malarone (malaria pills) the dreams I've been having are off the hook.... I literally woke up the other night looking into the eyes of a poodle size mouse licking his little chops on the sandbags next to where I sleep.......bizzarre....oh yeah, the mice... the little buggers are constantly chomping in the night and crawling around everywhere... Dorner found one in his sleeping bag earlier today,,, hahaha...... we sleep in little mud rooms with dirtt floors..... a far cry from the king size bed at home...... I imagined I was there earlier last night with Chandra next to me.......I'm always lookng at the photos I brought along.....They make me smile.......anyway... off to yet another patrol..... the night ones are a bitch.......