a MacGyver moment...

I bought these nice comfy boots before I came out here (the issue boots felt like crap), but the other day one of the metal vent things broke off one boot, it's like a rivet with a quarter-inch size hole through it and a fine wire screen on the outside to ventilate the boot...

When it broke off (I think I snagged the outside part of the vent with part of my pistol belt), the inside part basically looked like a flat brass washer, and the outside part looked like it could be "snapped" back through the "washer" part...

(see the pics)

 The vent part would sort of snap into the hole in the boot, and it stayed, but it wasn't really secure, and fell out the next day.

 

So yesterday, I had a great MacGyver (or MacGruber) moment, it went something like this (and yes, I was talking to myself)...

Hand me that angled mounting bracket I found in a drawer,

and that scotch tape - so I can tape the "washer" piece of the rivet over the hole in the bracket that's just bigger than the hole in the washer...

Now hand me that blue Sharpie, so I can mark the center of the hole on the tape to be able to see it through the hole in the boot,

Hand me that 12" crescent wrench, and the tape again, so I can tape the mounting bracket to the head of the wrench which is just big enough to fit inside the boot and span the distance across the inside of the boot...

Now, with the washer, on the bracket, on the wrench, inside the boot, positioned so I can see the blue dot through the hole in the boot, and so that the wrench goes across the width of the boot laying on it's side, on the desk...  hand me the outside part of the rivet vent so I can push it through the hole in the boot, lined up right over the hole in the washer piece of the rivet...

And hand me that 10 pound sledge hammer (our emergency destruction tool in case I have to smash up classified equipment) so I can smack the rivet and force it to snap through the washer...

Three good whacks and it's in!

Hand me that phillips head screwdriver - that's just a little bigger than the hole through the rivet - so I can put it inside the boot, into the hole through the rivet, and smack it with the sledge hammer to bend the metal of the outside part over the washer part on the inside to lock it in place.

Done!  Better than new!

(see pic)

Now if I can just figure out out how to get some cool water in the bathrooms...

Before I left on R&R last month (when the highs were around 100), we had hot and cool running water, seemed pretty normal.  

Now (with the highs in the 130's) we have scalding hot, and just hot running water.

The fresh water is stored in big plastic tanks that sit outside next to the bathrooms and showers, and they have normal water heaters inside those buildings - but obviously no water "chillers"...  

now you can call me from any phone!

let's see if this works...
click this, enter your phone number, and Google will call you and connect to me!

Happy Independence Day to everyone!

My 4th of July celebration out here consisted of a normal workday, with the added security and nonsense that goes along with a visit from VP Biden.  USF-I held a naturalization ceremony to give US citizenship to 156 soldiers from almost 60 different countries.  If you didn't already know, you don't have to be a US citizen to serve in the military, and this crowd raised their hands, recited the oath, and became citizens in a nice ceremony with the VP as guest speaker. 
I 'almost' got to meet the VP at lunch after the ceremony.  He was working his way through the DFAC (dining facility), was almost in front of me, then his folks had him take a different route.  I gave up on that and went back to work.
It generally sucks being out here away from home, but I can tell you that it definitely stinks to be away from my wife, and home, and friends, on days like this.  I hope everyone back home (and I'm thinking of Allentown and San Diego) had a great weekend enjoying family and friends - and I can't wait to get back to spend times like this with all of you!
I'll keep taking some pics, and posting some here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/bultar/PicsFromVictoryBaseComplex#
Work is kind of slow frankly, as I continue to try to find new things I can do and new missions for my Det - to keep us busy now, and maybe provide meaningful support/service down the road. 
If you use Skype, look for me online and give me a call sometime!  "Bultar2020" 
Take care!  B

I'm still here!

I know it's been a LONG time since I posted anything here... sorry!  What can I say, I've been pretty busy, I've been just keeping up with folks on Facebook, and there was a period there when I was kinda in a rut. 
I did just post some new pics to my Picasa site (http://picasaweb.google.com/bultar/PicsFromVictoryBaseComplex#), and I'll just have to get better about updating this. 

The big news is that I just got back from a couple of weeks or R&R!  I got to go home for 15 days of leave - that was a fantastic break!  Hopefully that is about the halfway point in my tour.  When I returned to the base a couple of days ago, it was about 15 degrees hotter, and the water level in the lake around the palace was about a foot lower.  And it's just going to get hotter in the next couple of months.  If I can make it through these next two months, I'll be home free! 
It's really too hot to run during the day now (about 115, and going up to mid 120's probably), so I'm going to have to run right at dawn when it's coolest.  Of course I use that term loosely - "coolest" means about 90.  But I ran around sunrise this morning and it was really pretty comfortable. 

I will probably be traveling around the theater quite a bit more during the rest of my time out here, checking up on my guys I have working at different sites.  So that should help the time go by quicker too. 

I'd better get in to work, but I'll write more soon! 
Skype me sometime if you can!

A quick note

Hello everybody, so what's going on back home? Life and work here seems to keep getting busier. I'm definitely ready for a break.
I did a little traveling last week, and it looks like i'll do some more the rest of my time here.
Well it's really late and I have to be up really early, so, goodnight!

It's been 3 months already?

Yep, past the 3-month mark, 1/3 of the way done, but I'm not counting days or anything, still way too soon for that...  (But I might start counting days until my R&R break, that's coming up pretty soon!  2 weeks at home - yea!)  I sure wish I was at home right now, to take care of my Honey after her nasty spill yesterday... good news is that nothing is broken, and her face will be back to normal gorgeousness soon (well, maybe a few weeks). 

Everything's fine here.  If anything, it's a bit boring... I have plenty to do, mostly management of my detachment, day-to-day business of running a unit.  Sometimes I wish I was doing something a little more exciting (but I don't think Vic would like that).  But all of us play a part, and I'm doing my part.  I have been working on taking on a larger role though, same mission but more locations, that will be nice, and all that planning is keeping me busy too. 

The weather has actually been pretty nice lately.  It's getting up to 100 these days, but that doesn't feel too hot, and the evenings are really comfortable - there could be a resort here!  Oh wait... that's pretty much what this place was for Saddam and his cronies... but all of the nice amenities are long since ignored, run down, or blown up.  But it's going to keep getting hotter, and I'm afraid that the 120+ weather will probably feel miserable. 
We haven't had any bad dust storms yet, but they should be coming soon too.  We did have a thunderstorm the other day that was really weird - instead of typical black storm clouds, the clouds were tan/brown, because the clouds were mostly dust.  Lightning and some rain from big dark brown dust clouds rolling overhead.  Freaky.  I took some pics, but they don't do it justice. 
Sounds like it's really nice back home (Allentown and San Diego) with Spring weather and green everywhere - I can't wait to see that again!  It's just brown everywhere here...

So, it's been over a month since I posted an update... but I have been a little better about posting pics on my Picasa site, be sure to check those: http://picasaweb.google.com/bultar/PicsFromVictoryBaseComplex#

It was great to get a Skype call from Deep the other day... if you use Skype, give me a call sometime!  Take care of each other!
Cheers,  B

Update from Baghdad...

I know, I know, I'm terrible about posting updates here...  I'll give you a couple of excuses (they may not be good excuses, but it's all I've got!)  First, it's kinda like the movie 'Groundhog Day' around here, so it feels like there may not be anything worth writing about.  And second, I have been pretty busy - but busy with things that either I can't really talk about, or more likely busy with things that would just be boring to talk about!

I do try to take pictures whenever I see something new, or something interesting, or just something strange (lots of that here!)  And instead of trying to paste pics in here (not so simple in Blogger), I'm just posting them all on my Picasa site (that's really easy): http://picasaweb.google.com/bultar/PicsFromVictoryBaseComplex#

Last night I tried to take some pics of the army of spiders crossing the sidewalk from the lake to the palace, but it was too dark (no flash on my iPhone), but that was pretty weird!  No, they weren't those big camel spiders (I would have pulled my weapon on even one of those things!), they were just little things, but lots of them, partially illuminated by distant headlights.

I think that last pics I posted were from the X-Dog Race I ran a few weeks ago, the "Slayer Scramble", and there are more pics of that on their website:  http://www.xdogevents.com/slayerscramble.php.  There are a few other 5k or 10k events coming up that I will try to run.  And this weekend, I'm going to my first hash out here!

The Lost Lake Hash House Harriers (L2H3) has been hashing here for years, but hasn't been active since last fall... so we're bringing it back to life!  (We would be me, an old SD hashing friend, and a couple of hashers I met here through the Las Vegas email list.)  Hopefully we'll get some interest and get a regular hash going. 
Oh, and can I talk about the weather some more?!   It's sure not what I expected!  Since I've been here, we've had clear sunny days in the 80's, comfortable nights in the 50's, then days with highs in the 40's and lows below freezing, beautiful clear deep blue skies, then dust in the air so it looks like orange moonlight, rain both when it's hot and cold, and rain when it's dusty which means the rain is really drops of mud!  But it hasn't been uncomfortably hot - yet, I know that's coming, and we haven't had a 'real' dust storm yet where we need to where goggles and dust masks... can't wait for that...  :-/ 

There are interesting things going on around here these days... but you'd be better off watching the news, or digging around with Google to find out about things like the elections going on this weekend.   

Several folks have asked what kind of things I might like sent to me in a care package, and I really appreciate the offers, but honestly, just an email, letter, text msg, etc., is about all I need.  I can get just about anything out here that one can get back home (well except beer, but that will have to wait til I get home - don't try to send beer, I'll get in trouble!)  Keep in touch!

Cheers, B