hail

Yesterday we got a lot of rain over the course of a few hours. It even hailed for about an hour. The sound of the hail hitting the tents and metal containers was intense and deafening. I included pictures below.

The problem with rain here is that the ground is not porous at all. Thus, I can expect to waddle amongst big muddle puddles for the next week. The bizarre thing is that the puddles will start to recede about a day after the rain, but only to grow to their previous size the next day. I think the ground initially absorbs it, but then the water is drawn back out when the weather permits.
Nothing exciting is going on this week. We are starting to prep for a move next month since our lease on this British base is up when our unit redeploys home. Thankfully, we have not had a lot of patients, at least nothing exciting enough to report here in my blog.

I read another couple of books since last post. I read one called Ghost Map about the great cholera outbreak in Victorian London in 1850’s. It gave a very vivid picture of how people lived in a densely (over 2 million people) populated London at that time. It was the first time that someone actually attributed the disease to contaminated water. The prevalent theory of the day was that of miasma. Miasma was thought to be a bad humor that would settle over areas of filth and which blamed disease on poor air or putrid smells. Anyhow, the first half of the book was good, then the author started to try and parallel to a lot of modern day problems which lost my interest.

The second book was by James Patterson called Double Cross. I read this book because I had never read this popular author, but also because he sent us a huge shipment of free books in support of the military. It was a quick read (which for me is saying something, because I am as slow as it goes). It was a ‘who done it’ serial murder book. It was satisfying.

Today I am going to start State of Fear by Michael Crichton. I understand that he started this as a book to help educate about global warming, but ended up being a book about how it is all a shame. Right up my alley. It will be a very contemporary book to read since more is in the news every day about how the governing bodies for global warming had been taking suspicious studies and unqualified research and presenting it as real. Also, we are seeing record snow storms this winter in many states. I have not heard an explanation from Al Gore.

I saw in a headline that Tomlinson will not be back next year. Unfortunately, two years too late. Had we cut him loose, kept Turner and suffered the public sentiment backlash, we would probably have a Super Bowl trophy. The guy was great, but it is a business and we kept him too long. Now we have to hope that there is a quality running back in the draft that will be able to start next year.

Okay, you know that I am bored if I have rambled on for this long. Enough of me, get back to your lives already. Love you all,
Mark



Corpsmen reeling in the flag during hail storm.

















Well I guess we now have ice. Probably more palatable than the water we drink.

Hail collection between tents.