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Published On: Apr 26, 2006 10:02 PM
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Published On: Apr 26, 2006 10:02 PM
Are you still there?
Greetings, faithful readers! I apologize for the
dry spell, but I'm in Iraq. Still.
I was supposed to leave around the 10th of June. As you can see, it's now the 26th. I should now be leaving around the 1st.
The week that I was to leave was a rough one all the way around. The team to replace mine arrived on Tuesday. Two people, a unit commander and his lieutenant, were killed here by an explosive device on Wednesday, in the palace next door. The incident turned out to be a "fragging" incident by a disgruntled unit member. About 25 MP's moved into my transient quarters that day.
And on Thursday, our office burned up.
My teammate, myself, and two members of the new team left for midnight chow right around... well, midnight, obviously. Earlier in the day there had been a strong smell of ozone in the room, but we had unplugged the microwave, refrigerator, and TV (the usual suspects for overloaded power strips), and the smell had gone away. As we were returning from midnight chow, I (being a fast walker and out in front) smelled smoke in the hallway, and quickened my pace. I started to unlock the office doors, and realized they were hot. I could see nothing within through the tinted glass doors, but heard the beeping of our Unlimited Power Supply and could hear one of the phones ringing. The smoke smell was stronger.
I yelled "fire" over my shoulder, and got the lock off of the door. My co-workers joined me, and we grabbed fire extinguishers, opened the door, and began putting the fire out. (The story's a lot more complicated than this, of course, but I'm just giving bare bones here). There's no fire department here, so we were completely on our own; luckily one of the new team members is a volunteer firefighter.
It was the air conditioner. The wiring apparently caught fire, and took with it a curtain hanging beside the door. This in turn caught a large box of panty liners sitting on a table beneath the air conditioner on fire.
There was a lot of smoke and soot damage, but all of our electronic equipment (excepting, of course, the air conditioner) survived. I guess we were probably lucky we all went to midnight chow; not knowing how the fire started (suddenly or not) it's hard to say what would have happened if we'd been in the room. The next day we moved to a temporary office in another palace.
My teammates left on schedule to return to the US. I volunteered to stay behind and help the new team -- the fire occurred during what was supposed to be their transition, so they hadn't really had a chance to be oriented properly.
So that's why I'm still here, and will be leaving soon. Then Asatour 2005 can begin.
I was supposed to leave around the 10th of June. As you can see, it's now the 26th. I should now be leaving around the 1st.
The week that I was to leave was a rough one all the way around. The team to replace mine arrived on Tuesday. Two people, a unit commander and his lieutenant, were killed here by an explosive device on Wednesday, in the palace next door. The incident turned out to be a "fragging" incident by a disgruntled unit member. About 25 MP's moved into my transient quarters that day.
And on Thursday, our office burned up.
My teammate, myself, and two members of the new team left for midnight chow right around... well, midnight, obviously. Earlier in the day there had been a strong smell of ozone in the room, but we had unplugged the microwave, refrigerator, and TV (the usual suspects for overloaded power strips), and the smell had gone away. As we were returning from midnight chow, I (being a fast walker and out in front) smelled smoke in the hallway, and quickened my pace. I started to unlock the office doors, and realized they were hot. I could see nothing within through the tinted glass doors, but heard the beeping of our Unlimited Power Supply and could hear one of the phones ringing. The smoke smell was stronger.
I yelled "fire" over my shoulder, and got the lock off of the door. My co-workers joined me, and we grabbed fire extinguishers, opened the door, and began putting the fire out. (The story's a lot more complicated than this, of course, but I'm just giving bare bones here). There's no fire department here, so we were completely on our own; luckily one of the new team members is a volunteer firefighter.
It was the air conditioner. The wiring apparently caught fire, and took with it a curtain hanging beside the door. This in turn caught a large box of panty liners sitting on a table beneath the air conditioner on fire.
There was a lot of smoke and soot damage, but all of our electronic equipment (excepting, of course, the air conditioner) survived. I guess we were probably lucky we all went to midnight chow; not knowing how the fire started (suddenly or not) it's hard to say what would have happened if we'd been in the room. The next day we moved to a temporary office in another palace.
My teammates left on schedule to return to the US. I volunteered to stay behind and help the new team -- the fire occurred during what was supposed to be their transition, so they hadn't really had a chance to be oriented properly.
So that's why I'm still here, and will be leaving soon. Then Asatour 2005 can begin.
Posted: Sun - June 26, 2005 at 08:01 PM