The last two weeks of August were among the busiest I have spent here. They were well spent though. I was tired, but enjoyed most of it. I learned to operate a crane and forklift and a few new words in Arabic. I love to learn new things. The past week or so has been fairly quiet. I have spent much of my time watching Stargate Atlantis or catching up on sleep. It’s amazing how fast the summer went by. I’ve already been gone for 5 months, and in just 4 more I’ll be home on leave.
Today I decided to torture myself by looking at trip reports from other people’s climbs on www.cascadeclimbers.com. I looked at places I’ve been and places I’d love to go. It was very sad, because there’s only one thing that I would want more than to spend a few days in the Cascades, and that is to spend that time with my family. There’s something awesome and indescribable for me in the mountains and the forests. When I’m out in the wilderness or high on a mountain I feel more alive than almost anywhere else. I feel as if that’s where I belong. When I go home to the city, I’m glad to be back to have the comforts there, but I miss the outdoors. When I come home I plan on recruiting people from somewhere and heading off to nearest glaciated peak, hopefully I’ll climb
On my last mission our commander was given a plate of dates from a grateful civilian. They came from one of the date palms in his yard. I had never had one, so of course I had to have a picture of me with the date. It was about the size of a large grape, and very sweet, with a large seed. It delicious, but so sweet that even I only wanted two.
