First of all, refresh your screen so that you can see the new header! (It might take two clicks.) Yes, another new one. I didn’t like the old new one! I like this new photo style rather than the folk art.
Fran has been overseas for about 6 weeks. Seems like forever. Yet, we’re holding it together here. Each day brings a new challenge, (or 2 or 3,) but we manage.
Yesterday while Anna and I were out, (more…)
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Sleep Tents, originally uploaded by Midcoast Mainah.If the Army had wanted Fran to have a blog, they would have issued him one!
So the face of Fran’s neighborhood has changed. While this photo shows what his literal physical neighborhood is like, his virtual world just got a whole lot smaller. Turns out he isn’t allowed to have a blog unless he runs every piece of content by the higher ups. Since his blog was cumbersome to update with a small bandwidth internet thingy, he just decided to throw in the towel. I will continue doing what I am doing with this blog knowing that this is the place where friends and family will be able to check on how he is. He reads it regularly, so if you want to leave “comments” for him feel free!
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Here is some of the recent news from emails from Fran.
“I went off post today to ********. It is a big post south in Kuwait. We had to make an emergency run to get some equipment fixed.
I bought another, smaller 4 drawer chest. With it I was able to make my “desk” (see attached pic). Now I need a wrist pad for my keyboard. I made a shelf out of an ammo box and hung it off of the bed spring across the back of my cubby hole.
The trip down was pretty nondescript. Remember that picture I sent that showed sand, well, I could have sent you another one. Since I was driving, I could not take any pics of the towns we drove by. Nothing special, just different. Actually, this was the first time I ever drove OCONUS!”
And From another email:
“As a whole, the commo shop is garnering a good reputation of service and competency.”
I think of Fran daily…duh. Yup, believe it or not! Anyway, when I think of him and think further about the ’cause and why he and his unit are there; I also think of two young men who are also serving.
I posted about Tyler and Mark in a much earlier post. Well, my friend Suzie posts regularly on Friday’s in honor of those she knows who are serving bravely across the ocean. Today she posted Mark’s address and asked folks to write. I occured to me, that while I’ve been despondent over the fact that people I know, (besides me and the kids,) aren’t writing to him, I have been just as at fault for not writing to Mark and Tyler. So, I scribbled Mark’s address onto a post card, jotted a short note, and put a stamp on it, (ok, it was a 39 cent stamp, but I wasn’t about to let my lack of post card stamps prevent me from finally getting a note out to him…I’ll buy some post card stamps this week.) I don’t know Mark that well, but I did meet him while at TeenPact National Convention, and I do think about him and pray for him.
So, scribbling his address on the card was quite a feat, and I must say it was hard fitting it all neatly and clearly! So, here is my idea. I went into my software and copied his address from Suzie’s Blog post and pasted it into the address box. I then printed it on 10 of the labels on a sheet of 30, (In Microsoft Picture It! you can select how many labels you want to print on to at a time.) Then I changed the address and copied Tyler’s address from Becky’s Blog post and pasted it into the address block. Then I printed off 10 of those on the same sheet. Lastly, I pasted Fran’s address in and printed off 10 copies on that same sheet of 30. Now, I can write a quick note, and the 10pt font is clear to read and fits on any postcard!
Try it! If you don’t know how to do all that fancy computer label printing stuff, let me know. Leave a comment to this post, email me, call me, or write to me and I will make up labels and send them to you…send me the addresses you want and I will mail them to you. It will only cost me a stamp! I’d love to do it. I buy my labels in bulk on line and it is pretty cheap! (Don’t tell the folks at Staples!)
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Sand Storm, originally uploaded by Midcoast Mainah.Fran and I were typing away on GoogleTalk this morning, (morning my time, after work hours his time,) when this storm was going on outside his tent. Fortunately it didn’t effect our communications at all. He said it was the second storm like this in just a couple days. He thinks they are moving into the season for it.
I told him it looked like snow! He used the flash and it really made it look like snowflakes!
So, when they say that sand gets in to everything over there, I see why!
One more thing…if you see a different header than you are used to, don’t be alarmed…I finally changed it to match the new purpose of this blog. If you can’t see a different header, and the coffee beans are still there, click the refresh button a time or two. Voila, you’ll see a flag!
