Ryan's Iraqi Road

Rain in the Desert Spring

Last Sunday we had a bit of a torrential downpouring of rain. The first of its kind since I've been here in Bucca. Its always fun to get some interesting weather, unfortunately it only lasted for an hour or two.

Skin and bones...yeah right.

Look at all my loose skin!!! I'm melting!!! 20 more to go...185-190lbs is the goal....we'll see...I like to eat too much darnit!

Just give me a camera....

Desert Fog...no I mean REAL FOG!!!

The other day I woke up in a fog...real Iraqi desert Fog! Now I don't know if this is a wierd spring in the desert kind of thing, but I thought it was pretty cool.

Here is Bob's walkway. The small pieces of wood are intended to be illusions of a barrier, discouraging people to not take his rugs.

Bucca Poop Cloud

Unfortunately the means of garbage and human waste disposal on Camp Bucca involves a large fiery furnace or incinerator. Usually once a week they burn the "waste". When walking home from work you can't help but notice a large dark plume, affectionately termed the "Bucca Poop Cloud". We always pray for a nicer easterly wind to blow it away, but when there is none the cloud settles down...all around us...into the nostrils...living up to its name.

Here are some pictures of the Bucca Poop Cloud contrasted against the setting sun...very dramatic.

"Bucca Poop Cloud is coming for you"
"Bucca Poop Cloud has you in view"
"Bucca Poop Cloud won't be denied"
"You better run and you better hide"

The Collector...

My roommate or podmate or whatever you want to call him is a very nice guy, very courteous and easy to have as a roomie, HOWEVER, he likes to scavenge. He likes to collect. He likes to rummage. He tells me that everyday he takes a different route home from work should he come across something that has been cast aside that he might want to collect. And lately he has been collecting things to make a barrier in front of our pod to discourage passers-by to not step on our porch or walk on the gravel directly by our pod as that makes noise and makes it difficult for us to sleep.

Here you can see the corner of my pod, it has a walkway that would cause quite a bit of noise as people walked by (crunchy rocks/gravel).

The Great Wall of BOB. Here you can see how talented Bob is as a scavenger. He found a 4 by 4 piece of lumbar to block off the way. Then somehow he found a traffic cone? Are you kidding me? I asked him, "Bob, where did you find a cone?". His reply, "Oh, I found myself a cone." Well, if people didn't understand the message with a 4 by 4 blocking the way and the cone, BOB made it clear by taping on a sign to warn off intruders. Needless to say this thouroughfare has been shut down by Bob the Builder :). Now what to do about the crunchy rocks/gravel that wake us up when people pass..... stay tuned

As you can see from the first picture and this picture, Bob was able to come up with another solution to the crunchy rock problem. He was walking home and noticed that some carpets were in a dumpster...so he dove in! He scored some excellent rugs that he lined up down the walkway to muffle the sounds of footsteps, but there was one problem....

....People liked his dumpster diving rugs and someone stole one or two of them, which prompted immediate action. First, Bob posted signs to ward off potential thieves by appealing to their sense of Integrity. Even after the posting another one of his rugs was taken, but somehow Bob managed to find replacements while out on his meanderings or walk abouts. Most recently Bob has been collecting sand bags and stacking them on his rugs to dissuade those "rats" (said in his best Rhode Island accent).

Wall of Talent....from the Larson Youngin's

Having artistic leanings myself, it brings me great jubilation to receive the artistic endeavors of my chillin's. Here is my wall of fame. I gotta say they are pretty talented (no bias whatsoever)