When I told people I was going to Mazar e Sharif, they offered the same advice this guy's friends told him... But I don't own a Fox Hat...
Considering the weather here lately, I could use one though. I hope to follow up with some pictures, but let me just say:
It hasn't been above freezing in three weeks.
It has been in the twenties for most of three weeks.
It has snowed about 12 times in three weeks.
I have been on about ten convoys in the last three weeks - driving around here is bad enough w/o adding snow, ice, covered potholes, ditches and ruts, and the first day after the snow we rolled out into an undeveloped area with no roads and couldn't determine our normal path - it all looked exactly the same... six inches of snow covered everything. Luckily we continued in somewhat consistent direction (East...) until we found some familiar looking rocks and dirt piles...
The maintenance guys here switch between our two generators every three hours cuz the generators don't have a heating element in the oil sump. Leaving a generator off for too long allows the oil to get too cold and they can't get it running again. Not really that big of an issue, unless you're on the treadmill.... HA HA HA... yes, it happened to me. It's so much better when it's somebody else!!!
The other drawback to this minor issue is that when they swap generators there is a minor interruption in the electricity throughout the camp. Computer, lights, TVs, DVD players, all flicker and come right back on, so it's really just a slight inconvenience. What is NOT a minor inconvenience is the fact that the heaters in our room go off, but they don't come right back on. So when I go to bed at 10pm and the heater is working nicely keeping my room at a barely survivable 60 deg, but then sometime between 11pm and 2am they cycle the generators... My heater stops working. Oh, it's on, it just needs to be recycled. Usually it takes some time for the room to get SOOOO cold that I actually wake up. Probably right around an hour and a half. Finally I wake up shivering and fumble with the control just long enough to punch a button or two and get the damn thing working again. I pass back out, as my heater slowly brings the temperature back to a realm where you can no longer see your breath. Just about that time I have fallen back to sleep and the maintenance jerks cycle the generators again!!!
I now sleep in a sleeping bag, under the covers. It keeps me relatively warm, just so long as no portion of my body is outside the covers... Getting out of bed in the morning is not something I am terribly fond of naturally (yes, I admit it, I'm a bit of a night owl...), so you can only imagine when the temperature in my "cocoon" is about 98.6 (approximately...) and the temperature of my hootch is about 40 degrees F. Mornings have become the baine of my existence...
Well, I hope you've all had a great chuckle at my expense. I'm gonna go see how long I can stay on the treadmill before the next blackout... OUCH!!
Much love and don't forget your fox hat...
Michael
