Toby's Ironman-In-Training Blog

Hi all, just wanted to drop a quick note to everyone to say hi. A lot of times it’s hard to reply to everyone personally, since there’s usually a line to use email. It’s easier to write a message to everyone offline, then send it once, so please don’t be upset if I don’t get back to anyone right away!

Things are still pretty much the same here. My leg seems to be doing a little better; I’m still on crutches, but I’m getting faster! It’s mostly hard to just find a comfortable position to sleep at night without it hurting after a few minutes. And hopefully they’re just about through sticking us with needles for a while. The next anthrax shot isn’t for another couple months, and we got our smallpox about a week ago so that’s hopefully about to clear up soon too.

It seems like it’s thinning out a little bit on base here; the lines aren’t quite as long as they used to be. We’re still just doing base camp security type missions. It seems like morale is pretty good overall; everyone has settled in (as much as possible) and gotten used to the daily routine. The Simpsons comes on at 5:00 here, so I can still catch that before dinner!

I’m gonna try to borrow someone’s digital camera and take a few pictures when I get the chance, but right now there’s really just not that much to see. The weather is still pretty pleasant; it’s actually cooled off from before, which is nice because I always work up a sweat just limping a couple blocks to the chow hall or PX.

Hope everyone’s doing well; I miss you all!

Hi everyone, just wanted to drop a quick note to say that I got the first card Elizabeth sent; it got here in just six days!

Guess everyone’s heard about my soccer injury. Stupid European sports! Anyhoo, it doesn’t really hurt that much, but the only thing I can think of that’s worse than being in Kuwait is being broke in Kuwait (”broke” being Army lingo for injured).

We had another sandstorm today. Visibility was about a hundred feet, and even in our barracks there was a thick haze everywhere. Thankfully, it only lasted a few hours; they can last days sometimes. I’m just wondering how long my laptop computer can stand up to these conditions! I don’t know how anyone can actually live their whole life in this place.

Dan Rather was on post a while back.. a couple of my soldiers were interviewed. But in the middle of one of the interviews, we had our weekly chemical-attack drill. So everyone puts on their gas mask, except for Mr. Rather who didn’t have one! I wonder if that one wasn’t planned. :-)

All in all, things aren’t too bad; we are still waiting for a permanent mission and are just doing small patrols in the meantime. Well, all the non-broke soldiers are, that is!

Hope everyone is doing fine. Love & miss you all!