Flying the friendly Iraqi skies

So here I am at 26,000 ft. over Basrah, Iraq. There’s a river down there but
it doesn’t look exactly like the kind of vacation spot I’d love to go visit.
As the Middle East goes, though, the air traffic controllers sure are easy to
understand. Maybe that’s because they’re all Americans.

So with so much time passing since my last offering in this blahg, I don’t
even know where to start. I have this idea that I ought to write something
that someone else might actually be interested in reading. I wonder what
that might be anyway?

In the mean time, I guess I can just write about me. For some reason, though,
I doubt the ‘events’ are so interesting. But maybe a few of my observations
about them are.

For example, there’s the other guy I’m flying with this month. He’s kinda
quiet and does things his own way. I like that. We went to Chili’s in
Kuwait (no, I’m not kidding), and he sat right down and had dessert… first.
While we sat and ate pizza in Frankfurt, we studied him, almost like a
science project, while he peeled the cheese off the pizza and ate it
separately from the crust (in alternating bites, no less). I’m a
one-at-a-time eater, but that’s just a little overboard I’d say.

The cool thing is, he just didn’t care what we thought. I suppose I’m that
way, too. A New Yorker Democrat flight attendant friend of mine was
harassing me in Frankfurt the other day. I came down wearing Birkenstocks
and white socks – a favorite of mine. This isn’t the first time my footwear
has received comments from a New Yorker. She affectionately calls me her
favorite libertarian. I guess she just saw my attire as fitting, given my
political ideology. I think she likes being a Democrat so much that she
thinks I’m nutso. Maybe I am.

The problem is when someone like that thinks they have some right to rape my
paycheck and tell me how to dress. In fact, she’d probably prefer to just
make Birks illegal. I wonder if she was wearing anything made of different
types of fabric? She is Jewish, ya know.

So maybe I’m exaggerating about her desire to be the real-life fashion police.
But I do know she loves government, just like any good New Yorker would. So
she should just stay there. Fortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any risk
of her wanting to infect New Hampshire.

As for my ‘infection’ plans, the house is finally beginning to look like
something resembling a construction project. We have just over a month
before we leave Fresno. It’s starting to get exciting, really. When I get
home from this trip, I’ll have to get to packing.

Maybe between now and then I’ll think of something interesting to write. For
now, Baghdad is off the left and we’re headed up towards Turkey. Time for me
to catch up on some more email…

V- (keepin the blue side up)