Police State

I now know what it life under a police state would be like. A few days ago you may have heard in the new the increase in security status. Back home that mean little to nothing to most people. Here on the other hand was very much different. We had arm guards check our ID's every ware we went, To go to work, to go eat, or just walking down the road.

The true reasons are out of my pay grade but one of the big targets was the few thousand people on the base that should not be here, there workers who for many reasons do not have correct ID. That may sound strange that a military base in the middle of a desert would have illegal immigrates problems but we do. We had rumors that there were suicide bombers in the camp but this proved to be just a manifest of peoples worries when the security went up so fast.

It doesn't help that for the last few days we been hit with rockets attack each day. My place of work got hit on off hours. Its strange the physics of ballistics, they don't follow common scene as we perceive it. The 500 pound shell that hit went threw a steel container door and then bounced landing about a kilometer away but the divot in the ground from the bounce was no bigger then soup bowl.

It's not all doom and gloom here. As of last Friday we have a T.G.I.Friday, I have yet to go my self and you need to stand in line for a hour to get in but that can be said about most places here.

We also had our “gators” replaced with new ones. To remind people these are 6 wheel 2 seat mini tractors about the size of a large golf cart. The new ones have glass bubbles over the seats to protect you from the weather. What they don't come with is turn signals and break lights. Now we share the road with an assortment of large armored vehicles driven from people that learned to drive in dozen different countries. In the old Gators you could stick your arm out to indicate what your doing but the bubble prevents this on the new ones.

Each department been finding clever ways to manage until the lights kits show up. The Non-tacks use a flash light to shine in the back window, the linesmen accidentally smashed the driver side door off theirs. Us we made little mechanical arms that stick out each side when you pull different cords in the cabins. I'll try to get pictures first chance I get.

Sorry to say I have yet not received mail that was sent to me around new years. We are short planes as many are being sent to Haiti to help there, there is a small chance I wont get the mail till after I leave.

The fencing is doing well. Another Red belt has shown up from Ansteorra. Hes energetic but never used a rapier yet, I think hes just happy that some one out here can understand his jargon and he gets to swing a stick of some sort.

Any way see ever one in about a month and a half.