Well my
dear friends and family, it appears as if this portion of my journey has come
to an end. I wish I would have been more
on the ball with writing lately. I have
quite the entry about the drama that we’d been having lately. In fact, let me add that now. Let you guys get a little bit of
background.
07/24/2012
1330
I suppose
that if I’m going to document my life & times over here, I may as well
cover it all. There has been a lot going
on here that I haven’t talked about on here, not because I don’t want to, but
mostly because I haven’t really sat down & dedicated any time to it. A couple of months ago things started to get
a little bit unsettled to put it mildly.
There was talk about the post office closing when the Marines pull out,
even talk about the PX closing. Then
they were talking about closing this camp.
And about not hiring new people, while firing the current for different
various reasons, in an attempt at “cleaning house”. A lot of the guys here were getting very
fearful about whether they would pass their physicals or not. They started to fire people for their
cholesterol which they did not do before.
They also started not giving people a chance to go home and get any
medical issues taken care of. No second
chance. If you don’t make it, you’re
gone. That doesn’t provide much
comfort! That was actually why I made
that comment about trying to stay positive that S was going to pass his
physical when we went on R&R. If he
didn’t, boy would things have been altered!
Of course he is also the poster boy for excellent health, but you just
never know with this company!
Just before
we left on R&R, a lot of new guys showed up. I had just gotten a new roomie, an adorable
fire medic that I get along very, very well with. Things were changing very rapidly. We were a little bit nervous about how things
would be when we got back, but there’s nothing to be done about it aside from
either accepting it or quitting. While
we were gone, I heard from another of the medics who said it looked like they (the
medics) were going to be losing their contract here. How that makes sense I will never
understand. We’re on a military base in
the middle of nowhere. People get
hurt. Does that seem like a good reason
to take away the ambulance services? I
wonder if someone somewhere thinks that if there is no ambulance then people
won’t get hurt. Logical. Also while we were gone, 9 or so people
finished their contracts and headed home.
I was so sad to have missed out on seeing them, but I’m happy for them
that they get to get on with their lives.
Remember when I had to go a day earlier than I had planned? That meant I didn’t get to say goodbye to the
guys. Aah, chaos, how I depend on
you.
So we got
back from R&R. The last time I
wrote, I was still in Dubai and very angry about that situation but I finally
made it back home after a lot more ridiculousness and very little sleep. Little as in an average of close to 2 hours
for about 5 nights in a row.
Uncool. But I made it. When we got back, a lot had changed. I had to wait for a few hours near the travel
office because I had my luggage scattered between a few different people’s bags
and they had extra screenings to go through when we got back. While there, I got a lot of updates from the
chief that came by to get me. My, my how
things did change. And would continue to
do so. A few more bases have been
closing around here so we wound up with 7 new guys from that. The medics did lose their contract so my
roomie will be leaving at the end of this week.
Three new inspectors just arrived.
We almost got another dispatcher but the day he landed someone from a
nearby base quit so he had to head there to fill that vacancy. A few more people will be finishing their
contracts soon and will not be renewing.
The post office is closing on the 15th of August. As far as we know, the PX will still be open,
but we don’t know how long that will be.
The base is still going to stay open as far as we know and we should be
still okay until at least the end of this year.
Now there are other bases opening and word that we’re going to be losing
people to fill in some of those positions.
We’re supposed to be opening a second station here sometime soon even if
we don’t have the equipment for it. One
chief got transferred to another FOB, another one demobed from home when he was
on leave. And that’s just some of it
all! Yes, kids, this has been a strange
few months.
Well. In the midst of all of this
comes the point where I’ve needed to think about my future. It’s no secret that I am aiming to have my
future spent with S but the particulars of all of that have been pretty…
vague. Not that we don’t have plans, but
it’s just short of impossible to make normal plans given our work lives, our
personal lives, and our nationalities.
It won’t be easy and it won’t happen overnight. I think that until I was still in Dubai and
he was here back at Dwyer, I thought we’d have at least another year to make
plans. Not so much the case. We had a “light” talk about the future on
Skype but decided we’d talk more when I got back.
Well that
was where I finished writing from the post that was to happen a few months
ago. Just wanted to give you an idea of
what was going on around there. And now? Now I am sitting in KAF on my way home. Five people at home know that I’ll be
there. Home. Even that is a funny word, considering the
fact that I don’t really have one. For
two years Dwyer has been my home. My
safe haven. A source of sheer
happiness. Well I guess the past 17 months
has been the safe haven and happiness.
But either way, it’s been so simple and perfect. Easy routine, easy job, easy people to work
with, easy life. We had it so good. Perhaps I should backtrack. Lead up to now. Actually, what I’m going to do is pause and
post this before it gets way overboard and then I’ll continue writing tomorrow
or the next day. I’ll have plenty of
time, I’m sure.
