102612 If this cat has rabies, I'm dead.

102612  If this cat has rabies, I'm dead.

 

As a contractor in Afghanistan I'm bound by many (but not all) rules and regulations in place for military personnel here.  One of those rules is General Order 1A which says a bunch of stuff and among all that stuff it says that no personnel are permitted to "feed or have contact with the animals" here.  Per some of the attached link "the risk of rabies in Afghanistan is among the highest in the world ... Very severe illness; fatality rate higher than 50%".

 

Above are pics of "Danger".  Danger has been hanging around for a good 6 months or so behind the building where I work and I think Danger is sill a kitten. So when you pet her, she seems to think of it as play and scratches and bites a bit.  She doesn't bit or scratch hard but it is enough to draw blood, and she has done so several times.  She is still a good cat, but it turns out that she has rabies, I'm dead.

 

R/Chris

102212 Group Pic, Power Outage and Contractors drinking...

102212 Group Pic, Power Outage and Contractors drinking...

 

Yesterday we did a group pic.  Why we did so, I have no idea.  Someone said it was needed.  Of the 13 people in the pic I'm the second oldest and the youngest is 27.  Of the 13 people, 11 are prior military (7 Army, 2 AF, 1 Navy (me) and 1 USMC).  Of the 13, 4 are either never married and/or don't have any kids.  All of us are contractors and as you can see the 'average' contractor is pretty much someone you'd see on the street in any anytown, USA. 

Today we also had a power outage.  In Kabul (and on ALL bases here in AF) power comes from big diesel generators which are loud.  Kabul as a city periodically has brown-outs (like Mexico City, Manilla, Cairo, etc.).  Unfortunately when the generator 'went' the backup generator didn't go online so we were in the dark for about an hour.  In Iraq, it was a daily occurrence for the generators to trip once a day or so but the backup would be up in minutes.  Things are just different here.

I've been asked a few times if I worked for Jorge Scientific.  Uh, no.  In all my time in Iraq and Afghanistan I've never seen anything remotely like what is portrayed in the link below.

http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/video-shows-contractors-drunk-high-in-afghanistan-1.193608

But if I had, I'm not sure what I would have done either.  Doing the right thing would have meant no employment. I have no idea where these guys are in Afghanistan but I'm sure they're gone now. 

R/Chris

102112 Seattle and Rattlesnake Ledge

102112  Seattle and Rattlesnake Ledge

 On my R&R I also visited Seattle (where I'm from.)  Seattle is really a nice place in the summer as it's very green and usually not too hot at all.  But then again it's nice all year round to me.   Anyway one of the things I wanted to do there was hike Rattlesnake Ledge (see pic.)  It's a good hike at about 1200' elevation increase and generally crowded with tourist from overseas!  AND, there are no rattlesnakes west of the Cascade mountains so why the heck is it called Rattlesnake Ledge?   I hiked it with my friend Harvey (10 years my junior) and after maybe a third of the way up, Harvey needed to rest.  Then again, Harvey did say I had an unfair advantage since living in Kabul (elevation 5800) already aclimated me to such a hike. 
 Rattlesnake Ledge was also in the national news a while back since some nut-job, killed his family, burned the house down and hunkered down in a bunker somewhere here.  See link.

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2018093698_bunker29m.html

And in one of the pics across the valley is Mount Si.  Which back in the 80s was....Twin Peaks.  North Bend (the town of Twin Peaks) is down in the valley and the cafe where black coffee and cherry pie is still there.

R/Chris

 

102012 Trip to Chicago

102012 Trip to Chicago

 

As a contractor I get a break every six months.  This is pretty typical for most contractors but it can be more or less often.  It just depends on your contract.  Anyway, I got my break after about 9 months here and was in the states about a month back.  I went to a couple of places but really wanted to visit Chicago to see the Field museum and 'Sue'.  The Field is quite a place and I'm certain that I'll go back for the other exhibits.  Heck there is even a dinosaur at the airport!

Any way, here are some pics.  I've also not posted as much since I've been in a funk since I've been back and have been busy.  It just gets lonely here at times and I'm not immune to it.  It is what it is.

R/Chris