News from Jarhedjon

More news from Jarhedjon.

"Last year the geese were an item of interest here, and they still are (to those of us returning to the AO). I have recently discovered that a game warden was actually dispatched to this base back in 2006 to remove the geese, but was prevented in accomplishing his mission by some pretty important people (read "stars on their collars") due to the symbolic nature the geese seem to have had associated with them. There are currently 11 geese, I believe (all of them humungous honkers, and getting more stupendous by the day), which is two less, I recall, than there were when I left here about a year ago. RUMINT says that a couple of desert wolves are responsible.

I discovered that the waist button on one of my Training Allowance Pool (TAP) issued MARPATDDCU (Marine Pattern Digital Desert Combat Uniform) trousers was missing. I am happy to report that though I have not had to do anything of this nature for at least the last fifteen years (that I have been married to Sheryl), I was able to remedy the situation in an expeditious manner. Having prepared myself with a Marine Corps Field Sewing Kit, and through the use of all the aids and tools contained there in, I was able to sew on a new button (which, thanks to the supply of several types of USMC uniform buttons contained in the sewing kit, actually matches the other buttons). The hardest part was threading the needle. I'm far sighted, so with my glasses on I had to hold the needle so far away for it to come into clear focus that I lost perspective on where the thread was in relationship to the now quite distant eye of the needle. If I took my glasses off and tried to do the close focus thing, the needle's eye and thread were too CLOSE for adequate depth perception. Then, assuming I was actually able to line up the thread with the
eye of the needle (a feat I believe I accomplished once or twice), getting the "frayed" end of the thread to proceed through the eye was a different trick entirely. Luckily for me, the Marine Corps Sewing Kit contains a needle-threading apperatus that is basically a fine steel wire pre-formed into a diamond shape, connected to an aluminum tab (I discovered this device after my initial failures to thread the needle forced me to re-inventory the sewing kit to determine if there were any other options, like a needle with a bigger eye, etc.). All one has to do is feed the pointy end of the diamond through the eye, force the entire (now collapsed) diamond through, and then the diamond shape springs back into shape on the other side of the eye--then stick the end of the thread through the diamond, and then pull the wire back through the eye, and VOILA, the needle has been threaded. I must confess that it actually took me a couple times to get the end of the thread through the diamond, but I did get the mission accomplished. I was even listening to music at the time AND thinking about how I wish I could get someone else to
perform this task, which technically qualifies me as a multi-tasker.

Things are going well, I have heat in my room, I'm getting packages from home, I now have uniforms with their complete compliment of buttons installed, I'm just waiting for it to get hotter (which it will) and for my weekly schedule to become routine (which I hope it will). Thanks for your prayers."

Sheryl