1 week down!

One week of "Club Med" has been completed.  I spent the whole week trying to motivate everyone else while they were complaining about everything.  Each evening I would tell people something like this, "Tonight's meal will consist of surf and turf and a lovely old vine Zinfandel."  Most of the time, people would look at me and say, "How do you know that?"  I would smile and tell them that I didn't, but in my mind, that's what we would be having in my mind.  After dinner, I would come back to the tent and talk about how wonderful the lobster tail was.  Some would look at me with a quizzical look.  By the end of the week I had everyone else following along, to include many of the guys.  I would also joke about the spa treatments we would be having that evening.  Whenever it was dusty in the back of a 2 1/2 ton truck, I would proclaim that it was the exfoliation treatment prior to our spa treatment, just to prepare the skin effectively.  Again, by the end of the week, I had people going along with me.  I even had people going along with one of my favorite car games from my childhood, "I'm going on a trip and I'm bringing a _____."  We changed it to be, "I'm going to the range and I'm bringing a _____."  It's amazing what strange things people came up with, like a cartoon-covered camel for C.  We got all the way through the alphabet before getting to the range.  It was a lot of fun!





Home away from home!

Whenever people would complain, I would remind them that it could have been so much worse.  Just think about all the soldiers who get nothing but Meals-Ready-To-Eat (MRE's) for weeks at a time.  They don't get iced water for their canteens.  They don't sleep in tents, on cots, etc.  They don't get a shower, even if it's only once a week.  It could be so much worse!  Oh yeah, we could have people shooting at us, too!

All in all, I had a fun time.  It was incredibly hot every single day.  Record-setting temps!  The heat didn't affect me too much until Thursday.  It wiped me out and I took an hour nap back in the tent.  We had a lot of heat casualties, though.  One person has become my pet project.  I found her on the land navigation course, in the middle of the road.  Her battle-buddy had left her.  What the heck are these people thinking?  The next day, at the zero range for M-16, she had another heat issue.  Poor lady, she's drinking plenty of water, eating correctly, staying in the shade.  She has been down here for only a week and is coming from Philadelphia.  It definitely doesn't get that hot where she lives.  I had to ride in the ambulance back to our base camp, to make sure she was OK.  Then, I had to go to the clinic with her, too.  Everyone kept assuming that she wasn't staying hydrated, but she was going to the bathroom more often than I was.  When the medics finally checked her temperature, after about 30 minutes of me cooling her down, she had a temp of 99.5.  I can only imagine what it had gotten up to. 

So, I didn't get too many pictures, but here are a few for your enjoyment:


Fine dining at Club Med!  Notice my hot sauce?




Learning about the M-9 9mm pistol



Charley's Angels have nothing on me!

 While I was out of touch with the rest of the world, life continued to happen.  My middle sister, Lori, had to deal with the death of her dog.  I'm so sorry about Cassie's loss!  What a great dog Cassie was.  She was Lori's first kid and I know that she will be sorely missed.  My friend Karen had a loss in her family, too.  Her Aunt passed away and Karen didn't find out in time to attend the funeral.  Karen, I'm sorry for your loss, too.

We also found out that Shadow has torn her CCL (which is like the ACL).  She needs surgery in order to get near what she was prior to the injury back in March.  Our biggest motivator for doing the surgery is knowing that she is putting additional stress on her uninjured hind leg, putting her at risk for damaging that one!  UGH!  We have scheduled the surgery for when I return to Wisconsin after Officer Basic.  I can be there for the operation and help Shadow during the first week of recovery.  My poor puppy.

Not too much else going on down here.  I return to the field on Monday morning and our first thing to do is the 9 mm range!  That'll be fun and scary.  We actually walk down the range at one point.  Not too intimidating if you are protected on either side, but this is an outdoor range and there will be people walking next to you from the class.  I don't know anything about hand-guns, but there are people here who are clueless!  Just keep your fingers crossed that nobody shoots themselves or their classmates.

I hope you are all doing well.  I will try to take more pictures next week!

Take care and stay cool!

--DV