Out with the Old, In with the Not as Old

I finally got the mount for the front of my hang glider rack moved from the Old Hajjimobile to the New Hajjimobile on Monday. I bought the tags for the New Hajjimobile yesterday, and called the Humane Society today to donate the Old Hajjimobile to them. Someone will come pick it up tomorrow.

A new Computer

Linda bought me a new computer for Christmas. I decided to go with Linda's recommendation, and go with a HP. It has a camera and everything. Now all I have to do is get all my software loaded. I'll see if I can take a picture of me and post it here.

Fuzzy Wuzzy

I decided to get my hair cut today. I'm mailing the remains to "Locks of Love" where they use donated hair to make prosthetic hair pieces for children who lose their hair due to medical reasons, usually chemo-therapy. I will be starting school next week, and figured I might end up crawling around under an airplane. The way my hair is when I tie it back in a pony tail, it ends up looking almost like this picture by the end of the day. When I was skydiving all the time (several years ago, when the cold didn't bother me as much as it does now) I used to cut my hair in what I called a "skydiver cut." None of my hair could reach my eyes when I cut it like that. I don't have any old photos of what it looked like, but it wasn't nearly as long as it was earlier today. This is a little over three years growth. The last time I cut it, I buzzed it off in preparation for doing "NBC Training" before going to Iraq the first time I went over there. In case you are wondering what "NBC Training" is, it is training to learn how to put on equipment used to protect yourself from a "Nuclear, Biological, or Chemical" attack. When I did the training the first time around, I did mine on Saturday, and watched the other half of our group do theirs on Friday. As I watched people donning and removing their gas masks, I thought it might be very uncomfortable with my long hair. I was also concerned about the heat, and the sand. I figured it would be uncomfortable in the heat, and a lot of work to keep clean, so the easiest way to solve that problem, along with the possible discomfort in donning and removing the gas masks for the training was to whack it off. I buzzed it. There were people I had sat next to for several days that did not recognize me after I cut my hair. This time around, I decided the sand wasn't that bad, and I would deal with the heat when it came time to deal with it, and there were a lot of women who had hair longer than mine, and they didn't buzz their hair off, so I kept it. Lately, my hair has been in the way when I get out in the wind, so I decided it was time to do something. Also, since I am job hunting, it might be easier to pass an interview if I don't look like an old hippie, since I am in the middle of Conservative America. During the time I worked at GuitarCenter.com, I felt like I looked pretty conservative, even with the long hair. In this photo, you can also see the back of my hair in the mirror, and it was pretty long.

This is the view of my four pony tails from the back.You can see the reflection in the mirror, and the two rear pony tails hide the two rear ones when viewed from the front.

This is what my hair looked like after the pony tails were cut off, and before it was "styled."

This is the finished product. The lady who cut my hair was great fun. She thought it was great I had wanted to do pictures before and after. If you want to donate your hair to "Locks of Love" you can go to Great Clips, and they will tie your hair into a pony tail, or four in my case, and cut your hair for free. It is the policy of Great Clips to do free hair cuts on these deals. I didn't realize it, but the back of my head, next to my neck, my hair is still brown for about the lower two inches. The rest is very grey. It sucks getting old, but at least, I'm not getting bald also.

Some of My Friends

I am having a terrible time getting photos placed where I want them. I hope no one is offended by placement of their photos. Each time I add a new photo, it is added at the top of the group. I have been attempting to add text, then add photos, to go with the text, and am having marginal success. In the photo to the left, is Shankar, who works in the laundry at Speicher. If you look to the right, you can see the tube which contains my "VIEW" from my room. I decided Shankar might enjoy having a "VIEW" in his room, so I gave the poster to him.

The photo to the left here, is my friend Singa, who adopted me into his family. When I first met Singa, he had been assigned to serve Ice Cream at the DFAC for the day. He told me he thought I looked like someone from Mongolia, because of my facial features, and my jewelry. I've not met anyone from Mongolia yet, but current theory suggests the Native Americans came across the Bering Strait, and probably many would have originated in Mongolia. I've been told I appear to be Native American. When I was taking pictures of my friends, he told me he had a present for me, and gave me a Buddhist Prayer Shawl his family had given him as he was preparing to leave home to go work in Iraq. I was speechless, to say the least. I think the camera with the photo of Singa and I must have been over-exposed to the XRay machine during one of my passes thru Security at one of the airports I passed through on the way home. There will be some other photos that have similar red coloration on the edges.

This is (from left to right) Ganesh, Leslie, Me (duh) and Tikka! Leslie works in the KBR mailroom at Cob Speicher, and Tikka and Ganesh assist her in the process of getting the mail to the KBR employees. Leslie and I worked together in JMMT, until she was able to transfer away from JMMT into the KBR mailroom, which is part of the HR department at Speicher. She is the only person I know who was able to get away from JMMT without having to quit KBR to do it. They pick up the KBR mail at the Post Office, and take it to the KBR mailroom, sort it all, and make a list of the KBR employees who have mail. The list is then disseminated to all the departments of KBR sopeople will know they need to come pick up their mail.

Sunset Sledders and Life

Here are two photos of me on my hang glider. These were shot about a week ago. I still don't have any photos of me flying my paraglider since I got back. The sun was to the west, and is what is causing the glare on the top picture. I set up a little better on the lower picture, to put the sun behind "Crazee Mike" who shot these pictures for me. This was the second time I have flown my hang glider since I got back from Iraq.
I finally got the chance to fly my paraglider this evening, after nearly fourteen months without flying it. I'm about four hang glider flights to one paraglider flight since I got back from Iraq. I still prefer my hang glider to my paraglider when conditions would work for either one of the two, but I definitely did enjoy the flight this evening. Conditions were light, and I only made about five turns, including the one onto final. It was getting pretty dim out when I landed. I managed to get some other pg people to take pity and give me a ride back up the hill. This was good, as my feet still haven't totally recovered from the punishment they received while I was working in the Cob Speicher Post Office on the asphalt floor that used to be a parking lot.

When I was packing my glider, I noticed I was not seeing very clearly, and discovered the lens on one side of my glasses had fallen out. Bummer, as I really didn't want to spend the money for a new eye exam, and new glasses just yet. I figure if I am going to spend the money for a new set of glasses, I should probably get my eyes checked, as it has been two years since I last had my eyes checked. Oh well, its only money.

Before I decided to leave Iraq, I was considering doing a vacation to go fly paragliders. I was considering Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, and Bali. The first three choices were because I know people who live in those countries. Part of KBR's contract with their employees includes vacations and an allowance for airfare on those vacations. The only one I took was the one they give everyone who puts in a full year. I was on vacation for the first ten days after I got back. Their contract states that if you don't use the vacations, you don't get paid for them either. I figured if I left, I'd probably never go back, and I needed the money, so I didn't go. Also, I wanted to start back to A&P school in January, and wanted to be able to accumulate as much cash as possible. If I had done the two vacations that I could have done, I would have had to stay until January 3 before coming home. I figured the expense part of the vacations, allowed for the pay and airfare allowance, and think I would have not been in as good of financial condition if I had stayed til January 3, as I am in now, even though I came home two weeks ago. There is a man I know who works for DHL whose home is Pokhara, Nepal, which is one of the premier paragliding sites in Nepal. In case you didn't know, DHL has the contract with the US Military to move the mail by air into and out of Iraq. I usually saw this guy every day, as he operated the X Ray machine used to check the outgoing mail for non-mailable items. Maybe in a couple of years, I'll get to go to some of these places. One of the groups from India has what I think is a cool web site. The club name is Temple Pilots Association. They came up with their name because most of the Hindu and Buddhist Temples are built on high places, and the Temple Pilots, like most of us involved in foot launched flight, like to fly to high places! Their web address is: http://www.templepilots.com/

I still don't have any "in air" photos of me. This evening didn't work, as it was very overcast, and very close to sunset when I launched. I also knew it was going to be too light for me to have much time in the air to be able to try the camera to see if it could find enough light to work. Maybe next time.

Flying in Utah

A group of us loaded our gliders onto Liz's 4Runner and headed North to Plymouth, Utah to join Matt and Cody to fly the Short Divide on Saturday November the first. Launch is at the top of the hill near the antenna above Liz's head.

Below is the view out into the valley from launch. Cody's truck is out of sight blocked by the ridge in the lower center of the photo, and is parked next to the LZ. The LZ is about the center of the right half of the picture. Matt (launching first) and Cody (launching last) both specked out, and the rest of us had somewhat shorter flights, but we all had a good time, enjoying the last of the 70 degree weather for a while, and the comraderie of good friends. Matt took several photos and did commentary on his blog at: http://mattsbigadventure.blogspot.com/ The small speck is Matt at about three thousand feet over the landing zone, and the photo after is Matt immediately after landing.

A good time was had by all.

Get on with my life!

I noticed on November 14 that I had started this post on my birthday. I spent my 58th and 59th birthdays in Iraq.
Sunday October 19, 2008, I decided 366 days in Iraq was enough. It is now early Tuesday morning here, and as I contemplate now being 59 years old, I am still glad I made the decision to leave here. My gliders have been sitting idle for too long. Linda is more than OK with me leaving here, even though I didn't take care of all the financial goals I had originally intended. I had a few distractions along the way, that offset the original goals, or I would have made them. I guess when one wants to be a philanthropist when one grows up, one must make some sacrifices. I broke down and bought a couple of throw away cameras, and will use all 54 pics before I leave here. I'll have them developed when I get home, and post the ones I like. There will be one of the stadium across from the post office where Sadam shot his Olympic soccer team, as well as some of my friends over here. If you happen to notice the pics of my friends consist of people from Uganda, Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, a few soldiers, and a very few civilians, you are observant. These people are the ones who shared their strength with me. Without them, I don't think I would have been able to do a leap year in Iraq, without leaving or going ballistic. I went postal last December, and crazy when they moved me to section 8 last March or April, and regained my sanity when I decided a leap year in Iraq was enough. I'll even take a photo of my room and post it, complete with the window with a view, courtesy of OB1. When you see the pic of my quarters, you will understand about the window with a view. later, GliderMike

Just like in the Movies

We had a dust storm come through this evening. It hit here about 5:45 pm local time, and the main part of the dust had dissipated by the time I finished eating at 6:25 pm. We could see it coming, looked just like in Hidalgo the movie, except it was cloudy out, instead of bright sunshine, and the color was not as drastically red as in the movie. I kept expecting to see Viggo Mortensen come riding by on his horse at any moment! I hope to have photos available soon. Some of the soldiers I know were taking photos of the approaching storm, and I asked them to email photos to me. If they do, I will be able to post them here.

Aviator's Annonymous

Today, I was exchanging emails with one of the people with The League of American Bicyclists about different stuff, and came to the full realization I am addicted to aviation. If there was an organization called Aviator's Anonymous, and it had meetings similar to Alcoholics Anonymous, I would need to belong, and go to the meetings. I am also an avid (there is a big difference between avid and expert) bicyclist, although not very current. I often tell people that my bicycles are the best investment as far as enjoyment, benefits, and value of anything I have ever done. I can't always say that about my aviation addictions, yet if I had to make a choice between the two, bicycling or aviation, I would give up the bicycles before I would give up aviation. Some people would say I have an aviation problem. I don't think so (not yet at least).

The real reason for today's post is because I added a link to another aviation site. My current preference to realize my habit is un-powered aviation, or as I like to call it "solar/gravity powered" aviation. The new link is to Soaring Space. Gloria is the owner/moderator, and had posted a comment in a friend's blog, and I had to check her site out, and...... Anyway, you can find the link in the "Links to my Friends Sites." Soaring Space also has a forum, with another group for me to discuss my opinions about things involving my habit!

I had applied for some other jobs over here. I applied for a supervisor's position, a truck driving position, and a transportation foreman's position, all within the Mail Mission. I heard the other day, I did not get the supervisor spot, which is probably just as well, and I heard today I did not get the truck driver job. Linda was hoping I would not get the truck driver job, as she didn't think it healthy to be driving around Baghdad. I interview on Friday for the foreman's position. I will gather some information about the duties and responsibilities of the job, and maybe I might be able to land it. The difference in the pay between the foreman's position, and my current position would be enough money to be able to get a new wing when I leave here in January. I have decided to leave Iraq January 3, 2009, and resume my studies to become an FAA Airframe and Power Plant mechanic. Classes start on January 12, 2009 where I will be able to pick up where I left off nearly two years ago. Anyone who reads this blog, may find it boring, but I have come to the realization, this is a good way for me to keep some semblance of a diary, so I can go back and see whether I am doing OK or not! If that doesn't make sense to you, oh well!

Peace Day and Super Taco Fridays

August 8th was Peace Day, a local holiday. I'm celebrating Peace Day today. I figured up I have 21 more "Super Taco Fridays" to go til I'm out of here. The DFAC (dining facility for you folks not familiar with military terminology) does Tacos on Fridays, in addition to the regular choices of a "normal" type meal, and the usual cheeseburgers, wraps, stir fry, and healthy bar. One of the men in the Air Force commented when I first met him that they had a certain number of "Super Taco Fridays" to go before it was time for them to go home, and I've decided that is a good way to keep track of how long I have to go, before I leave. It doesn't sound near as long as four and a half months, and definitely doesn't sound as long as 145 days! I've been in Iraq for 296 days now, and it has been it has been 328 days since I last flew my hang glider! I had thought about doing an R&R in mid October, but have decided against it, as it would cut the income earning potential available between now and January 3, 2009. I've decided January 3, 2009 is my last day here, and I will return to Salt Lake City, and go back to school to complete the study and training for my FAA Airframe and Power plant rating. If I don't leave then, it will be another year before I could pick up where I left off. I figure I need as much cash on hand as possible when I leave here, so I need to "make hay while the sun is shining."

I had applied for some other jobs, and did phone interviews for two of them. One of the interviews, didn't go well for me, and the other went well, I thought. I have one more interview to go, if I get picked for an interview, that is. Haven't heard anything on either of the two for which I interviewed. The jobs I applied for, would be a pay increase for me, and I would like to have the extra money, as it would give me a little more cushion for when I start back to school. I'd like to have an additional glider, but I don't think I will have enough reserve cash to get one, so I will continue to fly the one I have, when I get back. It flies well, but isn't much of a cross country machine, which is what I would like to do. There are pilots who could easily fly my glider 100 miles, but I'm not one of them (yet). I figure I should make a 100 miler, so I can top the cross country flight I have done in one of the balloons I had. I flew 97 statute miles on one flight, and landed in 30 plus mile per hour wind. The landing was interesting, to say the least.

The stress level at work has eased off considerably, with the current supervisor, who unfortunately will be leaving in two or three weeks. He was in the reserves, and has been called up to go back to active duty. He is the number six supervisor we have had,, since I arrived here at Speicher with the post office, since the end of January, not including one of our current personnel who was acting supervisor for nearly a week.. The supervisor before this one, was sent here a week before he was supposed to go on R&R. He was not one of my favorite people. I think he wanted to be a "gangsta." He was from The Bronx, or at least that is where I think he was from, and sort of carried himself like a "gangsta wannabe." He had the "jailhouse tats" or at least they looked like "jailhouse tats," and wore his pants fairly low, like the gangstas and "gangsta wannabe" dudes. I've never been into tattoos, partially because there are so many that are poorly done, and partly because I can't think of any artwork that I want to put anywhere on my body that I will have to look at for the rest of my life.

I had sent a letter to Logan and Duncan (my step grandchildren) and used one of my "Hang Glide Iraq" postage stamps on it. Linda told me she had talked to Joey (my step daughter) and Joey had said the boys really liked the postage stamp. Linda is sending some colored pencils so I can get creative in color with the stamps, which should be fun. When I was on the day shift, I had been doing parcel inspections, and one of the soldiers had a letter he was wanting to mail. I suggested to him that he make up a stamp design of his own, since it was an option, and told him about my Hang Glide Iraq stamps. He drew a blank on a design of his own, and asked me to do one of mine on his letter, as he thought the person he was sending the letter to would get a kick out of it. Naturally, being the helpful person I am, I obliged. If anyone isn't familiar with what I am talking about on the parcel inspections, I will attempt to explain. The Department of Defense has decide the personnel here in Iraq are not disciplined enough to self police themselves about things they send in the mail. There is a long list of "non-mailable" items, and we have to inspect every parcel to be sure no one is mailing any non-mailable items. I describe the list, as "anything that can, will, might, could have, or did go bang, any hazardous chemicals, and anything listed on the list of items forbidden by General Order Number One. GO # 1, lists forbidden items, such as porn, drugs, and a bunch of other stuff.

This is all I can think of to post for now. Long Flights, Smooth Air, and Soft Landings, from GliderMike