Army Post Road

     I was busy the past week. Monday and Thursday I played OPFOR (killed off lots of the good guys, it was all sorts of fun) and Tuesday and Wednesday I did driver’s training basically all day long. I am now legal on operating a HMMWV and a 5-ton truck. The eventual goal for my vehicle lincensure is to be able to drive tractor-trailers. Now that’ll be all sorts of good fun.
     On Monday when I was doing OPFOR stuff I got bit up about as bad as anyone could. No mosquitoe bites, just ants and ticks. I’ll spare you all lots of details about it but when I saw the doctor yesterday morning about it, there were enough tickbites that he was sufficiently concerned that I might get Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Now if that isn’t a disease with a bad-ass name I don’t know what is. On top of that, I got some poison ivy (or oak or sumac, I never saw what got me so I couldn’t tell you for sure what it was) on my forearms so I am just one big, bad itch-machine. Now for the lesson out of all this: plan your clothing selection for a day out in the field better than I did. When the day started out, I was good. It was cool, I had a long-sleeve, hooded sweatshirt on. As we got to runnin’ around goin’ “bang-bang”, I got too hot and stripped off my sweatshirt and only had short sleeves covering my arms. That’s how I got the poison ivy on my arms and that, combined with not having my pants tucked into my boots, is how the ticks got under my clothes. How have we remedied the situation for future missions rolling around in the mud and grass? I dug out my 100% DEET bug spray (mmmm cancer causing), bought a couple long-sleeved t-shirts to wear, and we’re going to be blousing our pants inside our boots from here on out.
     Even if I have been out doing all sorts of fun stuff out in the mud and grass (and vehicle cabs) all week, I haven’t missed out on everything. Earlier this week I watched Rumor Has It… with Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Costner, and Shirley McLaine. Kind of predictable but funny nonetheless. Good enough to warrant the cost of renting. Last night I watched Elizabethtown with Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst. Quite funny. First Orlando Bloom movie that wasn’t an action movie that I cared for. Having gone to basic training at Ft Knox (which is just south of Elizabethtown, KY) I had a very good appreciation for what Western Kentucky and it’s people can be like and the movie does a good job with that (one thing that should be used universally is the video of a house blowing up as a video pacifier for children). What Kirsten Dunst’s character said about being a substitute person resonated with me to a certain degree, especially the part about liking people to come and go regularly and not always be around. It isn’t always true but some people are better enjoyed in doses rather than streams. Megan’s post on From The Archives about being a Back-Up Wife reminded me of it.
     There was plenty of good stuff this week on Marginal Revolution starting last Monday with a pointer to a bit about lottery tickets that contribute to your retirement. In the piece they point to an EconLog piece about who’s more irresponsible that I thought was very excellent.
     When in Iowa City, I get asked why I’m a Republican all the time. People there just can’t fathom what goes through a person’s head that makes them a conservative or even a conservative-leaning moderate. Well, here’s one woman from California’s reason why she’s a Republican. Amen.
     More from me later.