electrifying showers

It's Friday night and the weekend ahead looks about the same as last weekend and the one before. I miss the Friday nights at home having some friends over and playing cards. Going to Costco on either Fri. night after work, or Thurs night to pick up the chicken wings. Chandra and I put them on the bbq on Fri. night and I gotta tell you they are delicious. We usually would play a couple of games. Our friend Terry would quite often lose his shit, more or less whenever his wife took his chips. James is out here right now, although I haven't seen him since our last poker game in our apartment. We really don't get much of any news from the other Companys out here, let alone our own Troops scattered across our AO. The TC has been really good coming around and filling us in on whats been goin on. Capt Hachey brings us the mail, and other things that we have requested. He is the Troop Commander, acting Tp Warrant, and he's been known to pitch in whenever he can. Excellent leader, and one who stands up for his guys. yeah yeah Stink, eat it up.... i can see you calling me a lick from here. Anyway, day 2 of my 14 day hiatus away from the guys at my home platoon house. Fortin stopped by today and it seems that he and the Warrant where he's working at are butting heads. We'll see how that pans out. I've worked for that platoon before and they're a complete shit show....Thankfully our section is with 42 and with lucki it'll remain that way throughout the tour.
Theres a few things that need to get done around here. The bridge that spans the Wadi in which we have to drive over in order to enter this platoon house is workable but damaged severly. Someone drove over the thing and completely missed the treadway, resulting in the support structure of said treadway cracking in two. We're workingon getting the materials to fix it, but it looks as though it may be a few days. As a result of this, I am back to shitting in plastic bags yet again because the shitter trucks wheel base is too narrow to straddle the treadway. No big deal. A few other small projects around here will be on hold, cause it looks like we'll be busy doing 'other things" in the upcoming days.
The shower situation in this place is a step up from where I've been thus far. There are only 2 problems that I have seen with the system. First, the water used to shower is held in reservoirs above the shower unit. The water used to fill these tanks is pumped in from a water buffalo on ground level. This water is heated by the buffalo itself. the water usually originates from a water truck. But on the days that the water levels are getting too low, then the water is obtained from a well outside our little mud hut. The 3 tanks we use are 500 gl each. And the jerry cans we use to fill them are 5gl each. Thats a lot of hand pumpin. We finished filling 2 and then the watr truck arrived..... ouch... The next problem I have discovered from word of mouth and then by experience, is the water in the unit above the shower holds a current. This is due to the fact that there is a small water heater in that tank constantly provided heat to the water in there. Well, the guys had told me about this, and I thought, well how bad could it be. I jumped into the shower looking forward to my first warm shower since KAF. I adjusted the shower head with my hand and felt the electricity in the head. It wasn' too bad, so I continued on. Well, once that water got on my skin I had to adjust the shower head to rinse. Well, if my hand could chew alluminum foil thats how it felt all the way up to my wrist. I used the shampoo botlle from then on. Oh yeah, and I still haven't had a warm shower. I'm done caring about the warmth of the water. I think my average shower length is 45 seconds of water flow. The rest of the time lathering. well, like I said, activities will be occuring in the next few days, and good ole Hawk is making his way over here for the show. He's bringing one of our guys, then 2 are heading back to our old digs. We'll be spread thin but I think it may work. As long as the ANA show up that is.
Doing Op shifts here as well now. They aren't as bad, only 2 hours.... getting really chilly at night here. The mud houses we live in keeps the air cool during the day, and somewhat warm in the night. We're still working on a solution to make it a little more cozy. So as of now I am with Roberts, Veilleux, and Hryniw(pronounced Herandyou). Gotta go and sort some scheduling issues that have just come off....... Chandra, I miss you like crazy, I want your poker chips.........night