Damian has landed in the Sandbox and, as expected, does not disappoint.

Read his first post here.

Then, read his post on IEDs.

But here’s what we as Canadians don’t already know: that the Taliban victories plastered all over our media, and imprinted upon the national consciousness in 2008 represented less than 4% of the total IED incidents in Kandahar province during that time. And that percentage has nearly halved from the year before, when it was 7%.

…

IED’s continue to be the single greatest threat to Canadian life in Kandahar, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. But the story the Canadian public has seen to this point is not the full picture.

If you haven’t done so already – take a few minutes and spare some change for his tip jar to help defray his costs. Click the Donate button on the bottom of his latest post, or the Chip In widget on every page.  Hey, if a military family planning their second ever vacation in nearly 14 years (the first, being at the “almost 13 year mark) can do it, so can you!

Ian Shantz from the Barrie Examiner is also on the same trip and you can read about his experiences here.  Archie McLean with the Edmonton Journal will be joining them soon and blogging from here.  According to Mr. McLean:

The blog was kept by my Journal colleagues Graham Thomson and Ryan Cormier when they were in Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008 and the archives contain all kinds of great pictures and words from that troubled region.

News of 408’s Helicopters was printed in the Edmonton Sun today.

Last year Drew and I – with much help from Drew’s best friend S’s wife K – went on vacation to Jasper Park Lodge in Jasper National Park.  It was the first non-camping/non-family/non-wedding related vacation we’d ever had. We’d never had a honeymoon.  We’d never gone anywhere together that didn’t involve a family visit or wedding in some way, shape, or form. It took us nearly 13 years to vacation together.  Alone. In complete control. Do the things we wanted to do. Or, more accurately, could afford to do.

So why did it take so long to go on vacation together?  Some of it was related to our jobs. We spent a lot of time apart while one (or both) of us was working out of town or out of country.  But let’s be honest.  99% of the reason we never vacationed together was because we couldn’t afford to do both the family/wedding visits AND personal vacations. Guilt piled up. Family won out. We visited.

Until last winter.  We took the 4 day trip to Jasper and had a fabulous time.

This year we’re going to San Diego Comic Con.  4 day passes to the Convention have been purchased. I used my NWA airmiles to arrange for our flights.  Hotel reservations have been made and we’ve joined the SoCal Browncoats brigade of volunteers. We’ll be soaking up the sun in Southern California for 2 weeks. A visit to Disneyland is on the horizon. Now we have to save a boatload of $$ for the hotel. *squeee*

We’ll likely miss a family wedding or gathering this year. And I don’t care. I suspect Drew doesn’t either. We can’t afford to do both and it’s about time we got to do something we really want to do.  It’s taken 13 years for us to start putting ourselves first.   Like my parents before me, it’s often us who does all the traipsing around to visit others. Not this year. Our firm message to the family will be – You know where we live. We have a spare room. Don’t ask or expect us to visit you. It’s your turn to jump through the hoops.

Just don’t plan any visits until Drew returns.  Or in July.  Or at Christmas/New Years.  We’re not available ’cause (finally) we’ve got plans!

Drew tells me January is the month of perpetual Mondays.  He’ll experience Tuesday when February rolls around and is hoping to be home sometime Thursday. If he’s still in KAF by Sunday, we know something is horribly wrong with their scheduling of reinforcements.

It certainly feels like a Monday at work today.

On the bright side I continue to like the new boss.  Had an early am meeting with him and some fears were put to rest. Go me!  Or, more accurately, go new boss!

Whatever was wrong with my thumbs and hands appears to have gone back into the hole it crawled out from. I am able to write again and am much relieved. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen again anytime soon.

Drew called this evening shortly after I spoke to my mother and seems to be in far better spirits than last week. He still has a cold that hes been fighting since he arrived in country. They all seem to be fighting it off.

He confirmed that I can write about eating sushi or el salvadorean (from El Rancho specifically) any day since he’s not find of either types of food. Well. He doesn’t like sushi at all but he does normally like Mexican and South/Latin American foods. He just doesn’t like the spice used in every dish at El Rancho.

A few minutes of listening to Drew on the phone does wonders for lightening my mood. He tells me he rides the short bus to work with his helmet on. Cracks about licking the windows *nom nom nom* are true Drew style.

I told him about a conversation I’d had with a co-worker last night. M had asked if I’d heard from Drew recently and when I’d responded in the negative he asked how I manage. I think my reply shocked him a little. I’d said that I don’t think about it. You just get on with life per normal. You get used to not knowing what’s going on and relying on faith that everything is ok. If you dwell on the absence I don’t think it would be possible to function. I’d probably never leave the house. Drew agrees.

I like to think that we’ve developed this safety mechanism through years of being apart for months on end. For most of my time in the States, and all of my time in India and the Phillipines, were separated by large physical distances (oceans too) and often went days without being able to communicate with each other. Then, there’s all the times Drew has been out in the field, away on course, in the US or Bosnia… we’ve had lots of practice leading up to this tour. We’ve done this before. We can survive it this time and in the future.

It is nice to get a chance to talk about nothing at all. Most of today’s conversation centered on what renovations to the house (new insulation, new furnace and a/c unit, and siding the garage) that we’ll do when Drew comes home. These have been plans in the works for months before he left. Talking about them just continues a pre-established pattern.

Then there are vacation plans.

We can’t really afford to do the battlefield tour of France we’ve been looking forward to yet so we’ll keep dreaming and planning a big European tour to take place a few years down the road. I’ll need a lot more vacation time accrued before we can go.

Aside from visiting Europe, Drew has lots of family to reconnect with or meet in Enland and Scotland. We have lots of saving to do to manage the trip in the style we’d like to become accustomed to. Flights, hotels, train passes and car rentals. Oh, and meals. Drew’s not cheap to feed. Yep. Lots of saving to do. In the meantime we’re going to try and vacation a bit closer to home this year.

We’ve been wanting attend San Diego’s ComicCon for ages and this summer we’re going to make every effort to go. I’m in charge of getting tickets, arranging hotels and flights. Hopefully my organizational skills are up to the challenge.

Until then I wait for the next call. Hope to hear Drew joking and working to making me laugh again soon.

Something is wrong with my hands. I can type relatively well – all be it a lot slower than normal – but I can’t seem to grip a pen. My thumb starts trembling and my hand shakes. This is a real problem since I’m trying to write notes and answer my stats questions – both which require me to be able to write. Not good. Not good at all.

I have no idea why this is happening today. I had no problems yesterday and aside from the crazy trembling when I try to write or type there doesn’t seem to be anything else wrong with my hands. There’s no pain. No swelling. No feeling of cramping. Just uncontrolable shaking. It doesn’t seem to be related to the problem I had with the muscle/tendon of my left hand a few weeks ago.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say this is freaking me out. I’m going to keep trying to write in the hopes that this is something temporary. As far as I’m aware there’s no Parkinson’s or Huntington’s in my family history for me to be concerned about.

Hoping this passes soon and I can start writing legible answers to my homework assignments. At the moment they look little better than chicken scratches.