As I mentioned yesterday, Drew’s big update on his first call home was that the Tim’s cards aren’t accepted in Kandahar.  This weekend I’ve been driving and calling all the Timmies in my area looking for the old style paper gift certificates since the Timmies in KAF is accepting them.  We don’t live anywhere near the base so I tend to only go up there when I have to write exams. Most days I forget there’s even a Timmies up there. Instead I drove around to the 10 closest Tim’s near where we live only to discover that none of them sell the old paper gift certiciates anymore.  They’ve all switched to the plastic gift cards. I’m sure using the gift cards makes sense locally, but since they’re useless in KAF I have no interest in buying any these days. After driving around like a loon for a day I decided to spend the rest of my time calling the other Tim’s in the area to determine if they sell the paper certs before driving to them.  Saving on gas and being all eco-friendly and all that.  Mostly just saving on gas and avoiding having to go back out in the freezing cold!

Finally I broke down and called the Timmies on base.  They do still carry the paper certs but they’re currently locked up in the manager’s office and she won’t be in until 6am tomorrow.  I’ve got to get up crazy early to drive across town and pick up bunch to send overseas. I figure it’s best to buy in bulk since many of my friends and co-workers with adopted soldiers also live quite a distance from the base.

My search for Timmies paper gift certificates got me to thinking.  Since the local Timmies are all switching to the gift cards and there aren’t very many bases across the country, how will our friends and family, or complete strangers find paper gift certificates to send to soldiers overseas?  Apparently, you can order them from Timmies’ Head Office customer service department.  According to their FAQ:

If you cannot find paper gift certificates at your local Tim Hortons store, you can purchase them by contacting our customer service department by email at customer_service@timhortons.com, or by phone at 1-888-601-1616. You can pay be either Visa or Mastercard and the gift certificates will be shipped directly to you.

If you’re interested in contacting them to order the paper gift certificates they’re open from 8-5:30 EST M-Th and 8-5 on Friday. Closed Weekends.

Mystery solved.

True to his word Drew called back about a half hour after his original call. He doesn’t have a schedule yet for calls but he’s 11 and a half hours ahead of me so I suspect they’ll be coming in very early in the morning if he starts calling on weekdays. He was pretty tired when he called today since it was close to 11:00pm and he’d been up since 5:00am.

Unlike Bosnia where he got a computer timed allotment to five phone numbers a week, in KAF he has been issued a phone card with only 35 minutes on it. Each week he gets a new round of minutes. He can “spend” those minutes any way he likes – multiple short calls to various numbers, one long call home, two shorter calls home, etc. – but informs me that since this is all the time he gets he won’t be calling anywhere other than home. We’ve already spent all his minutes this week. I forgot how quickly time passes when it’s limited and you’re trying to share days worth of news.

Sorry friends and family. You’re not getting any of our precious calling minutes! You’ll just have to get your updates from reading my blog or talking to me.

He doesn’t have Internet access yet so can’t reply to any messages he may have received. He also has a limited allotment of data transfer available to him each week. Since the webmail account for his email displays message size he won’t be opening any large emails. Don’t bother forwarding funny pictures or videos. They’ll just get deleted. If you’re sending pictures from home save them at lower dpi settings, zip the files, or burn them to a disk and mail them.

Per Drew the area he’s in smells like poop. Apparently he’s down wind of the sewage treatment area. At least he can laugh about it. He’s also complaining about the cold at night. He also says that it’s surprisingly humid there and the humidity is causing him to feel the famed “bone chilling cold” humid areas are known for. Yes he has been reminded that 0C temps, even with unexpected humidity, are no where near as cold as the -30C temps he left back home.

Troops have to pay to send mail back home to friends and family so I’ve now been asked to send stamps. He also suggests that if anyone who adopted troops includes a self-addressed stamped envelope with their letter or package they will likely get a reply quicker. They can’t always get to the mail room to purchase stamps when they’re outside the wire or working odd hours. Makes sense.

I haven’t sent his first package yet. I’m still working on filling it. Guess it’s a good thing since he sent some request for books from our household library, paper Timmies gift certificates, and stamps. I have a letter to write and want to print off MOT’s first post and the replies so he can read it and pass them around to other troops.

Daylight is wasting so I’m off to complete my shopping mission. Oh, and I’m leaving his previous messages on the phone until I can record them off of voicemail. Just for the days when I miss hearing his voice.

Last night was the first time I’d entered the bedroom since Drew left. I’d been sleeping on the recliner in the basement for the past few days. The dogs have not approved of the situation and keep running to the bedroom door. I puess it’s only fun sleeping on the “fur”niture during daylight hours.

The bed in the spare room is covered in Christmas “stuff” that I’ve been too lazy to move and I just couldn’t manage to bring myself to walk into the bedroom of late. For once its a bonus that we have such small closets as I have stashes of clothes all over the house and managed to always find clean clothes without needing to go into the bedroom.

Today I learned that I must sleep with my house phone and can no longer leave it in the basement far away. The answering service we have on our phone line picks up after 3 rings. You can hear a person leaving the message but they can’t hear you at all. 3 rings also doesn’t Leave much time to stumble out of bed and try to run down stairs while trying to avoid being tripped up by the dogs.

I missed Drew’s first call home from Afghanistan. I am a horrible wife. He is a great husband because he left me a voice mail message letting me know he would try calling back later. I’m now glued to the phone and will not be leaving the house today of the off chance that he does get another turn on the phone. They’re limited in the time they can spend on the phone. Everyone gets the same small allotment no matter how big or small your family is.

When Drew was in Bosnia many moons ago he sent an email letting me know which day and approximately when he’d be calling me for the first time. No such luck this morning. Hopefully when he calls back he’ll have some sort of schedule assignment worked out for calls. On the Bosnia tour, I had a “window” when he would call. They were rarely at the same time but the ballpark timeline gave me a clue as to when not to leave the house. It was always Wednesday or Sunday evenings between 6 and midnight… Odd what you can remember from tours gone by.

Listening to the voice mail message I also learned that the KAF Timmies does not accept the swipe gift cards. They do accept the paper gift certificates so we have to specifically ask for that type – and hope the local Timmies still carries them – if we’re sending the magical gift of free coffee to Drew or other adopted troops.

I’m not a big fan of reality shows unless they are real estate or cooking/restaurant related. Tonight I am making an exception. I’m watching Secret Millionaire.

I grew up with a bright and bubbly young girl who grew up to be an amazing woman. A few years back Lisa, like so many others from my hometown, moved away to accept a job. She’s now working in a teen homeless drop-in care centre in sunny Las Vegas. Tonight her centre is featured on Secret Millionaire and I’m eshewing my self-imposed moratorium on reality TV to watch the episode she’s appearing in.

Nothing humbles you quicker than seeing childhood friends doing good. I’m looking forward to it.

Tour Update: Got a very quick message from Drew this afternoon. They’re half way to their destination.

You don’t realize how early 5am arrives when you’re used to waking up at 6:30am. It seems to come even sooner when it’s the day you drive your spouse off to the tour drop-off point. Bags packed and paperwork in hand we were as ready as we’d ever be. At 6am we left the house and made the drive to the base. Cold and snowing; no sun in sight.

I’ve met some of Drew’s co-workers in the past but it never really occurred to me how “old” many of them are.  This was not a group of young and naive sons and daughters being sent off to war.  Most were in the late 30s and 40s with only a few in their 20s or 50s. Some had been on tours before. These are our volunteers.  They are educated and experienced in their chosen vocation. They believe in what they do. They chose to go. A little bit of them stays behind with us when they leave. Just like a little bit of us goes with them.

I know every tour send off is different but I for one (and I know Drew makes two) am extremely grateful that this one was closed to the media.  It was a closed event; friends and family only.  This was a smaller group than the one that left earlier in the month. There were nearly as many men and woman dressed in green combats as in the tan coloured sets.  The hangar was seemed near empty as they filed in (and out) over a 3 hour period.  Yes, even on the day you leave for a tour, you can be blessed with the infamous hurry up and wait experience.

There were children of all ages.  Some moms and dads. And dogs too.  Not ours.  I never would have managed the drive home with our dogs in the truck. In the canteen someone had spent hours putting food platters together. There was coffee and tea. Breakfast snacks, fruit and cookies lined the tables. People laughed and joked. Pictures were taken and cell numbers exchanged by some wives.  Kids played foosball in the corner while mom and dad talked quietly. Most of the crying will happen later in the privacy of individuals’ homes.

I took lots of pictures but there are too many identifiable faces in them to post them to my blog.  I didn’t have time to get all the waivers signed *grin*

I haven’t decided how much blogging relating to the home front tour experience I will be doing. Other spouses already do that and probably much better than I could.  Then again, I’m not the type to pass up an opportunity to whine and there’s a lot of snow shoveling in my future this winter…