The dang dog got out again - he broke out of the kennel without too much difficulty. We have had quite a hard time trying to keep him contained in the back yard. We reinforced part of the kennel by placing a piece of fence over the top in an effort to prevent him from jumping the fence. I let them hang out in the house last night after catching him but I think that in the end I was only rewarding him for making another jailbreak.
We left this afternoon to go check “Tall Ships” festival in downtown Tacoma. Prior to leaving, we locked both dogs in the kennel hoping that they wouldn’t be able to get out again. We must have crappy luck. Something set the dog off and he escaped - luckily - our neighbor directly across the street caught him. When we checked out the kennel we found that he had repeatedly smashed against the fence until it broke apart.
We fixed the kennel by completely covering the entire roof - we also chained him inside the kennel. We had to do the same thing to the last dog that I owned - she eventually hung herself during a thunderstorm when she tried to jump the fence while chained. I kept the chain short enough that he can’t get to any location where he could potentially jump and strangle. Hopefully this dog will be smart enough to avoid that fate. The kennel can now be called Dogcatraz - no dog should be able to escape this cage - if he does, he deserves to be free.
For the last few nights I’ve had one song running through my head - Thin Lizzy’s Jailbreak.
Let’s hope that I don’t have to worry about it again - if I do - its time to add hotwire to the rest of the kennel. That ought to slow him down.
I mentioned that we were going to be busy as heck this weekend and I was lucky enough to have enough time to upload a few photos. I’m not in either photo - mainly because I feel that even though I look fantastic I am extremely unphotogenic. Jessica is looking fantastic in each of the photos below - the first is at her graduation with Rachel and the second is at Jenny’s wedding (as if you couldn’t figure it out from the attire).
Jessica had something to say about it and you can read it at her blog
We started with two dogs and traded one back in - she wasn’t a bad dog - she was just ridiculously lazy. We’re back to two of them and I forgot how much I missed having dogs. I moved away from my parents house years ago and that was the last time I had really spent any length of time around a dog. My last pet was a bit of a nut job and was banished to an outdoor existence after tearing the house apart for the last time - certain members of my family did not want to put the dog outside or place it in a kennel when we left home. She had a “bit” of separation anxiety and proceeded to destroy anything she could find - you know - dads shoes, any scrap of paper she can grab, the Christmas tree.
Our dogs live in a massive backyard and have plenty of room to roam. Violet, the dog we got in the trade deal, is a little skittish (still) and won’t roam far from the kennel area. She’ll get used to it in time but its a change of environment. She has a unique and disgusting habit - she burgles turds. Yes, after she or the other dog leaves uhh… waste behind she will collect it and place it in her dog house. Apparently, she has been doing this for years. I really don’t know why a dog would collect turds aside from eating them which is a bit odd - dogs normally go for cat crap, horse crap, pig crap, cow crap, and well - essentially any other crap but their own. You may not notice it when you look at the dogs in this picture but Duke and Violet are trouble - I just don’t know how much trouble they are going to be - yet.
I’ve got a few videos of the two dogs in action and they may only be interesting if you really like dogs. You may want to check them out because you can see the scale of the yard that I get the “opportunity” to mow.
Then again, you may just watch the videos if you’re bored and you’ve got a high speed internet connection. Whatever reason - here they are.
In Iraq I really only knew a few things to be true - I knew that it was going to be hot during the day and I also knew that it was going to be dark and noisy at night.
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When I finally left I rode out on dark and noisy military transport - a continuation of a theme. My camera doesn’t like extremely shaky environments full of low light conditions but I think I captured enough for you to understand how enjoyable the ride actually was for us. If you look at the bottom picture, cram yourself into a closet with 4-6 other people, crank up the volume to the maximum level on your speakers, and sit/stand there for three hours you’ll have a slight understanding of how “comfortable” it was
I got home and met a fantastic girl in the airport - well - I it wasn’t the first time I’ve met her but it had been quite a while since I had last seen her.
We went home and she showed me around our house - where we had the lengthy task of unpacking looming on the horizon.
Luckily - I’m a task oriented guy and we got starting working at the task so it could be done - and so we could look forward to the party we were to have that weekend.
The house is complete with a garage and two dogs in the backyard - one of which will flop around like a fish if you ignore her.
We had a party and it was a great time despite me knowing only a handful of the people there - I met quite of few of Jessica’s friends but there names are already a mystery to me - damn short term memory. Feel free to check out more photos of the house in the gallery - thats it for now
It is quite hard to find humor in my life here but there are a few things that make me laugh - daily - in Iraq. I took a few photos today of some things that make you laugh or just say huh? So, without any further delay, here they are.
This is a random bumper sticker stuck on a random room - and it makes me laugh every day. Its a shame this isn’t a real trailer park because we’d have overweight slobs sitting in kiddie pools drinking PBR all day long.
This sign has always seemed a little odd - as if we didn’t pay quite enough to the contractor to get it right. I thought about it for a while and the angle of the walker makes it look like they are trying to sneak across the road. Caution - people sneaking across the road! BEWARE!
For reference - here is a normal crosswalk sign
I looked a little closer at the image and noticed why he was sneaking
Damn, that guy is some brand of mutant! Look! He’s got lobster claws for hands! It’s no wonder he’s trying to sneak across the road - I now know why we should exercise caution - you don’t want to piss of a guy with lobster claw hands!
Look! It’s an oxymoron. You’ll see a sign that says “high noise area - hearing protection required” within two feet of “Silent Power.” uhhh…. yeah…. This is one of the MANY diesel generators spread across the base. I’m sure that most of the middle east gets their power in the same fashion and I’ve got to wonder what happens to them when they run out of oil - solar power?
Here is a shot of the sun setting - finally! It can also be used as a metaphor for my trip finally coming to an end. I’ve got less than 2 days left here and then I start the long trip home - I can’t wait to get back.
I took a few photos of the main office before I got on the bus to head home a few days ago. In stark contrast to the night - we have sunlight - just want to make sure you all know that we have the sun over here too. I only see the sun for a few hours a day but I prefer it that way - I sweat less when I avoid the sun. Wow - the sarcasm is unbridled today -
A shot into the distance and a view of the sun - that is going to scorch the earth in a few hours.
This is our building - I can’t tell you where it is because force protection blah blah blah
I am one of the few that can drive the deuce and a half. It is loud, old, has no shocks (that I can tell), and turns like hell. But, its a turbo diesel and a 5 speed so its fun to drive once in a while.
The sad part is that the truck is as old as Jessica - ouch -
Yes, the barricade of the left reads Mortarita Vile
If you want to check out all of the Iraq photos - I’ve added a few more recently - head to the gallery.
I have never been one to share - some things I share freely - others I hoard. For example, I will only loan a DVD to someone else if I know where they live because I’ve seen some of mine run away in the past. I’ll share food freely if you happen to drop by - I like to cook and I’m willing to use any random person that drops by as a guinea pig.
I’ve never really shared any space on my website - until now. Jessica has added some of her own photos from her trip to Las Vegas in the gallery. I turned on comments because she digs the comment love - I haven’t been able to get them working yet - if they aren’t available know that I’m working on sorting out the bugs. She had fun - alcohol fueled fun - while in the city of sin.
Wish I could have been there - oh well - less than a month left.
I’ve uploaded some photos that I’ve either taken or acquired from here or there and I’ve posted them in the gallery. Feel free to check them out if so inclined.
Here are a few from the gallery
This is not from an explosion, rather, its from the trash fire that I drive through every day. It does a number on your allergies and lungs - who would have thought?
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