When we arrived, the officer that I replaced said they "Didn't count the days; they made the days count." Well, I'm sure you can guess how I felt about that comment! Everyone here counts their time by some unit of measurement - months, holidays, full moons, weeks - and those who are close to the end count days. We are still on months and weeks.

If you have seen the movie "Clash of the Titans" I feel like Zeus has picked me up by my shirt collar in Vacaville and dropped me here in Afghanistan. I am so looking forward to that pinching of my shirt collar when I return to my previous life. I can't complain though since so many here have it so much worse than we do. We have soldiers in the field at more remote sites without any sort of laundry support, who are living in tents and sleeping on the ground, and lucky to get one warm meal a day. I meet them in the hospital and hear their stories when they receive their Purple Hearts; and they want to go back to the fight and support their brothers-in-arms.

I have no doubt that the person who invented the Master Bathroom had been deployed; I also have no doubt that technology has made deployments more comfortable. Specifically Skype/video calling is a wonderful thing. The Air Force personnel here have free Wi-Fi which isn't available to us, however, a commercial service is available. With a whole lot of technical support from my communication section I was able to download and access Skype. I started Skyping with my family about a month ago and it is so nice to see them when I talk with them. I can see that they are healthy and eating well, that the dogs are all alive, and I can see my home with all its amenities in the background. I can see their funny little gestures and I even enjoy the rolling eyes, but I'll never admit that to them.