Remembering my youth

Long ago in the land of my birth I read a good book called "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway. I think my father saw something in my eyes about that book and on that weekend he took me to the beach, an isolated town at the coast where the sea gives life to the village. My father and I were able to go early that morning and my mom and siblings were coming later. The Ocean has an effect on me, it brings me to love the sea breeze, the waves invading the shore, the sounds and smells of times never changed. We stayed in a hotel overseeing the village and the shore. Many fishing boats were already coming in to sell their catch. My father and I went down to the where the market was and saw about 50 trucks that were coming to buy the catch of the day and take them inland. One of the boats had some fish still in the net and I wanted to see what was in it. One of the fisherman, an older gentleman just out of the book I had just read, was untangling the net ever so gently so not to destroy it. As I was to ask my dad what that was, the net was let loose and a big ass shark came out. I was so happy that for the first time I had seen a real shark. It was a beautiful animal, that famous dorsal fin was the first thing that caught my attention, the teeth, the gills were pulsating trying to breathe, the animal was dying. It was about noon by the time all the fish was sold, but the shark. It was bad luck for the fisherman that the net had caught a shark and not more profitable fish. My father asked me if I ever had shark, I told him that I didn't even know we could eat shark. He laughed and went to the older man and asked him how much would the shark cost. After a few minutes, I heard a loud cheer and saw some younger kids running to the shark. My father had bought the shark and had made a deal that if they would cook it anybody that wanted shark would be welcome.
The sun was about to touch the horizon when my Mon and sister and brother and little, little brother (later to become a 230lbs Police Officer) got to the beach, my mom heard the plans and loved the idea. About two decades later my father told me that he had bought the fish for about 10 USD, which was about what they make in one day's catch.
The fire was going hot, music was being played and a lot more people from the hotel had heard about the shark and they had come to check it out. The fire was beautiful, there were two fires, one for the cooking and one for the dance. Yes, there was a dance, the sun was going down, the music was growing louder, the stars were coming to see the Shark and that was the first time I saw my mom dance. She had a knee high white dress with her black hair reflecting the last rays of that Pacific night. I remember that the shark was the best thing I had ever tasted, I remember watching people thanking my dad for the shark, I remember people calling me to join them for the feast. After the meal the music took center stage, there were songs about lost loves, boats, lost friends and the hope of tomorrow. One of the songs brought out the children to dance, one girl, about my age, came over where I was sitting with my mom, she was from the village and the scars of the future were not yet visible on her childish face. She asked me to dance, I was NOT going to dance with a girl that was not of my social status, and I said, cordially, "no, thanks." Her face was of rejection, that will teach her a lesson. I felt so insulted when I turned to face my mom because I felt something burning on my neck; it was my mother's look of absolute "I am going to cut you and make you bleed for the rest of your life if you don't go find that little girl and promise marriage or jump off the highest cliff you can find." I pick the one that requires an apology. She was just a few steps away from me when I asked her if SHE would give me the HONOR to have a dance with HER. She smiled and said yes. I don't remember her name and I have never forgotten her. She was wearing a long dress, no shoes and her hair smelled as the ocean. It was soft to the touch, her body was very strong, her eyes were black as the ocean night. , We danced a lot that night, the fire on the beach, the smell of food and the belief of eternity were the great ingredients for a memory that had become more than that, it has become an escape. That little girl has evolved to a beautiful woman that still dances with me.

Thanks for reading.

Karma

I just went to fix a computer at the Real Estate Office that sold me the house. A few months when I left the Army my wife and I were looking for a house here in Georgia, We found a nice one with a big back yard and far away from everything that we decided to rent it. We wanted to buy it but the owner wanted too much for it. A few weeks after we had moved in, we asked the Real Estate Agent if the owner could go down a bit so we could buy it. After a few weeks of negotiating the price was not just right, but it was a lot lower that we had decided. So after a three week period, we bought the house and we were happy. The Real Estate agent and office had done so much for us that I told them if they ever needed anything for computers, they should call me and I would try to fix it. I got the call a few hours ago when Mrs. A. asked me to come over because one of the computers was down. When I got there about ten minutes after she called I found out that it was the main computer with most of the accounting information in it. It took me three minutes to find out what was wrong with it, ten minutes to fix it and five minutes to say good bye. The reason they called me was because the contractor that fixes their computers could not get there until next week and the office needed some information in the computer like yesterday so they could close the books for some kind of inventory.
They were so happy that the boss wanted to pay me, I told him that I was going to send him the bill. (Someday when the Jets win the Super Bowl)

That was my day today.

Sleeping...

I slept well last night, I was able to sleep about 10 hours, I woke up in the middle of the night, went to pee, then went back to sleep. I had dreams but don't remember what they were about. Well, I hope I can remember them next time.
I hope to have a good Hang Over day, I will be on call for the week, starting on Monday, but I will do what I have always done on New Years eve (There has been a few times that because I was deployed and we had to do it by mail -which was very akward- or by IM, which was too messy), about 15 minutes before midnight, I get the wife and I to retired to the bedroom and celebrate the old year and wish the best for the new year. I hope she is up to that.

PS I found this pic and I thought that it was very, wery true.... For me.


By The Way, If you need ANYTHING about software, hardware, advice on computers, just give me a buzz here and I will send it to you or I will let you know where to get it for FREE!!!!
Take care and HAPPY NEW YEAR to all.

Good Morning

What a week, after wrapping the presents and trying to get some sleep, the wife and I went to bed at about midnight. Exactly at three in the morning my girls got up and went running to our room to tell us that Santa had come and had left us a ton of gifts!!!. It was a great Christmas and we were able to enjoy it since my last one I was in Iraq pulling guard in a jail.
Talking about Iraq, I think that we should send a lot more troops over there, just make a hell of a splash with 1/2 million Soldiers/Marines/Airmen and Sailors and then leave. But first we should just kill the opposition. Start with the killing and then the talking.
I remember when first in Iraq about Feb 2005, I had the authority to order to shoot and ask questions later. We had lost our first soldier to an IED down in a town called Buhritz and on that night I was told by the guards on the roof that they could see three individuals digging. What could three Iraqis be digging for at three in the morning? I sent an IP patrol but the guards (US Soldiers) kept telling me that the IPs were not going far enough. The reason the IPs were not going far enough was that they were afraid. After an hour of this I decided to go up the roof and take a look. Through the thermal I was able to see three people digging about 600 meters south of our jail. I told the 240 gunner to aim and pop one, so he did, he fired his 240 automatic weapon and we saw one dropped and the other two take off running. After about three to five minutes we saw the other two coming back and kept digging, I told the gunner to kill them both. He open fire and another one dropped and the third took off running, At this moment the IPs were coming and we couldn't fire again without hitting the IPs. Next morning the American patrol reported a lot of blood in the area, some IED material but no bodies.
About 6 months later we had a car shooting at the IPs east of our jail in a town called Shifta. The guards up on the roof had a clear shot at the car which was full of terrorist, and I order through the radio to open fire. At that moment I get cut on the radio by the higher HQ saying that we should let the Iraqis deal with that. I protested saying that I had the fuckers in sight but the higher command had ordered that unless they were targeting us DIRECTLY we couldn't' open fire without higher approval.

I hope that everybody had a great Christmas and I am wishing you a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

I didn't know I could puke that much

Today I went to the doctor to find out what I could do to get a good night of sleep. The doc is an old Viet Nam vet that also sees my my two little girls so he came highly recommended. The doc told me that it is natural for us, coming back from the war, to feel all kinds of shit. He told me to take some sleeping medicine that will give me a good night of rest and maybe I can stop having dreams about Iraq, my friends, nightmares, Tom DeLay not going to jail, and more horrific things. During the consult, he gave me a physical and found that I had an ear infection so he decided to irrigate them. He used cold water and that made me a little uncomfortable, after a few shots of cold water in my ear I asked where the bathroom was and thank God it was close because as soon as I got inside I lost my coockies, I puked for a while. I am a good drinker, and I am a light weight about that stuff, so when I hang out with the hard core drinkers I end up puking a lot, NEVER LIKE THIS!!! I felt that I was in an airplane going out of control. After that I felt that my ears were better but my insides were not.

I hope that drugs do the trick and help me get a good night of sleep, rest, sex, and DREAMS!!!!! I LIKE TO DREAM BIG.

Good day to all!!!!

Nightmares

I have not been able to sleep more than a few hours the last week or so. In about 20 days I will have a year since I have been back, but it seems sometimes that I never left Iraq. I miss it more than ever. The nightmares are always about killing, I wake up kicking and can not fall asleep again.
Yesterday NOTHING was broke at work and the only thing I did was bring one old computer from the dead. I was very happy because everybody seems pleased with my work and at the Christmas party every body was telling me how better I am than the last guy they had.
My father is doing better and he will be able to stop the antibiotics in a couple days. All his blood work seems to indicate that the infection is over, at least for now.
I just wanted to send an update on how things are going here. By the way, the weather has been so freaking warm that we have been wearing short sleeves to work.

I hope that EVERYBODY has a good Christmas.

Great Weekend

I DID NOTHING but read, help clean and took care of the kids for a while. It was great, just watching TV and now and then getting up to fold clothes and help cook and drink some coffee.
My dad is doing better and I hope he gets to go home in a week. The best medicine right now is his own home.
I was so mad this morning because I wanted to see the space shuttle take off. We can see it here in GA just as a small ball of fire going up to the heavens. I was just tired and wanted to have some with the wife, but she was tired and fell asleep, I just went right after.
That was my weekend, I have nothing exciting to tell. I hope that this week is the same. CALM and with nothing to tell.

Have a great weekend everybody.

Taliban are fags!!!!!!

Here goes my weekly update.
This week was a lot of work and with the news of the new Iraq deal, I am tired of the fact that MOST people making the decisions about the war never heard a shot fired in combat. My father left the Hospital yesterday and it looks, feel and sounds a lot better. He has a nurse that will come every day to check on his progress, my mother is with him 24/7 and my brother has a bit of medical background that can help.
A couple days ago I got drunk with my next door neighboor because he has just returned from Iraq and will be home for a couple days, he was escorting the body of his gunner that was killed last week in Baghdad. So he wanted somebody to have a couple beers with and I had to make the sacrifice.
My unit is going back to Iraq arround May next year. About 20% of them are gong there fro the thrid time in four years.
Last year I posted that some al-qaeda prisioners told us that as a part to belong to that organization they had to fuck eachother. Well CNN is reporting that:
"Along with rules about not smoking cigarettes and not allowing murderers to join the Taliban, there also is this entry: Taliban "are not allowed to take young boys with no facial hair onto the battlefield or into their private quarters." Sexual abuse has always been a problem for the movement, especially in some of the madrassas (religious schools) that feed recruits to the movement.
Controlling bad behavior is just one of the ways "the Taliban are aggressively seeking to update their organization inside and out."
And that, he says, is a worrying sign, as worrying as their increased presence on the battlefield."

I just wanted to tell you that we are fighting people that fuck each other before they go into battle.
Take care and please remember that "tantum religio potuit suadere malorum."