Day 105 - Dust Storm

Okay, first things first - - - Al sent out a little update today, he doesn't do this very often so I thought that I would post it first . . .

Hey everyone this is an update from Iraq. Ever since I started doing the XXXXXX job I have had to keep up with the weather. We have a small weather station on the roof of our building. We heard on the radio that everyone should roll up their windows now. We did not know what was happening but a sandstorm was coming and the winds got up to 121 knots (a knot is equal to 1.1 miles) with sustained winds of 51 knots. The sky turned red and we could only see 100 feet. The wind and sand are horrible. This is our first sandstorm and we got out in it and took pictures. We are like grown kids joking around. As I am writing the wind speed is 35 knots and gusts 99. It is brown out. We can not leave the building and don't know when it will stop. We got in touch with our other FOB's and they are reporting the same. I will try to send some pics in a few days. We moved into a new tent today and the air conditioner is not as good as the last so we are gathering fans together. We should move from the tent in a month or so. I will keep you all posted. Thanks, AL

He is always Mr. Positive Attitude about everything as you can tell - LOL!! I call Al my bunny, and joked with him that after the dust/sand storm that now I need to call him my dust bunny!!

Sorry that it has been so long between entries, work has been crazy - and then my best friend Melissa came to town for the weekend - we shopped till we dropped on Saturday - and then we took Em to the zoo today - I will post pics for you tomorrow. It was really nice to have a friend to hang out with for the weekend!! Girlfriends are the best!

I wanted to close today's entry with a Robert Frost poem that that for me, epitomizes what I want things to be like when Al comes back --- a simplicity of life - of togetherness - I had to clean up paperwork to find some of his nursing credit hours that he had earned this past summer - and I found this poem that I had printed because it had reminded me of what lifetime love really is all about.

Anyway - it's not a super famous Frost poem -- but it really speaks to you if you let it.

The Master Speed ~ Robert Frost

No speed of wind or water rushing by
But you have speed far greater. You can climb
Back up a stream of radiance to the sky,
And back through history up the stream of time,
And you were given this swiftness, not for haste
Nor chiefly that you may go where you will,
But in the rush of everything to waste,
That you may have the power of standing still --
Off any still or moving thing you say.
Two such as you with such a master speed
Cannot be parted nor swept away
From one another once you are agreed
That life is only life forevermore
Together wing to wing and oar to oar.