My Best Friend, Technology

The last thing I wrote about was being grateful for being over here and having technology in my corner. Remember that? Guess what! Right now, I have no internet, no television, no texting, no Skype, and my phone doesn’t have much of a signal. I am isolated! I remember getting an e-mail a few days ago telling me that we would have sporadic internet on September 22, but I haven’t had any trouble today until after I got off work and was trying to talk to Max before he left for the wedding I won’t be able to go to in Wichita.

Fortunately, we still have power, and so I am able to listen to music. My cute little speakers are really quite good. Right now, I am listening to Frank Sinatra live at the Sands. I think it is sometime in the mid-1960s. He just said that to build a new hotel costs about $25 per square foot. Here’s the cool thing – Count Basie’s orchestra is playing for Mr. Sinatra, and he is doing his own little stand-up routine. He just said he was 50. That was a long time ago! I remember when Lorraine and I went to see him in Kansas City. We paid $50 per ticket, and people thought we were loony to pay that much. Isn’t that something? I wouldn’t have traded it for anything in the world. And Frank and Lorraine are birthday twins. It was a fun evening.

Back to Afghanistan, where Frank Sinatra never played, and I am beginning to believe no one else did, either!

The days are getting much shorter – although we won’t go through the short day shock when Daylight Savings Time ends. There is no Daylight Savings Time! The nights are getting cooler, as well. I go to sleep with the air conditioner on because my little room gets stuffy during the day, and I wake up freezing. And something tells me that I am going to need a coat long before I will be home to pick one up.

I have no idea what went on at my office today. I was involved in a project that took all day, and fortunately I had begun on Friday; otherwise, I wouldn’t have finished. As it was, I was pushing 5:00 to send everything that needed to be sent. I just had a horrible thought – what if the internet had been sporadic when I was sending e-mails every five minutes or so? That would not have been good. I do know that both my little guys were in today – the class that one of them was teaching ended on Thursday. They were laughing about something, but of course, I had no idea what. I am quite sure they were not laughing at me, however, because the first day they were conversing in their language, Esman told me that it was bad for Muslims to speak behind people’s backs – that was a mortal sin – so they would not be saying bad things about me that I couldn’t understand. They are both so nice that they wouldn’t do that anyway.

I really like working with both of them; they are both so young and yet seem so much older than their years. I think that probably has something to do with the fact that they are responsible for not just themselves, not just themselves and their wives and children, but their wives, their children, and everyone else who is in their household. And of course, because they don’t drink, haven’t chased girls, and as far as I know, don’t play sports with other guys, they ARE much older than American men of the same age. They could, I guess, come in tomorrow and surprise me, but I don’t think so!

Sometime soon, we are going to move our operation to a different location, but we don’t know when. My understanding is that our little rooms are going to be picked up and refurbished and then plopped down in another camp somewhere close to here, but I have no idea where. The interesting part is that we will be living at a hotel downtown while all this is going on. I keep expecting to hear that I will have to pick up everything and have it ready to go in about 15 minutes, but so far, that hasn’t happened. I’m kind of ready for the hotel, because we are still locked down – which means that the hotel probably isn’t going to happen any time soon. We still haven’t had any incidents like what is going on in Pakistan (or what I think is going on in Pakistan – no connection to the outside world tonight!). I feel very lucky.

For the first time in my life, I will vote via absentee ballot this year! I got the ballot today, and will mark it and send it in tomorrow – except maybe not, because I forgot that tomorrow is Sunday. It’s so interesting to have Friday off and work on Saturday and Sunday. I lose all track of time. I’m sure of today’s date only because of Trisha’s wedding. She’s been working on it for a year and I know she will be a lovely bride, and I know they will be very happy. But that’s how I remember that today is Saturday.

I will close for tonight, and read a little before I fall asleep. It’s been a long time since I have read before falling asleep. I confess to enjoying Two and a Half Men much too much to read. And the bad news is that right after that silly television show, The Big Bang Theory lures me in. I try to forget that it’s on, but when Sheldon starts in on some of his schtick, I can’t resist. Maybe this year will break me of that habit!