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.

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…

Having sipped wine and smoked cigarettes in Paris, watched the sun rise over the Taj Mahal, and shopped in Winnipeg, MOT decided something was missing. He’d lived a life of fun-filled abandon and it was time to take the next step. MOT found friends amongst the Canadian military and decided to go along on the latest tour to Afghanistan. Who could blame him – it was this or spend another cold winter chopping wood in the wilds of Alberta.

Granted, he certainly didn’t like how the trip started. Being forced out of bed and into the cold at 5am wasn’t his idea of a good time. Then, there was lots of “hurry up and wait” time before the bus left for the airport at 9am. Enough time to get his picture taken with some of his luggage. As you can see MOT does not travel light. Many of his bags were shipped overseas separately from his “hand” luggage.

MOT and some of his luggage

Like most members of the military, MOT doesn’t know exactly when he’ll be coming home (although, he sort of knows the month) or how often he’ll have access to a computer to post updates on his adventures. He’s certain many pictures will be taken and his stories posted as soon as he can find access to the interweeb.

While he’s away, his behaviour will be carefully monitored by the men and women of 408 TacHel Sqn from Edmonton, AB. We wish him and his associates a safe trip.

C/p Dust My Broom

Despite being off work this week so I can study and complete my exams I’m still receiving lists of “emergency” issues to deal with.  I’d tell you how I really feel about the situation but I’m trying to clean up my language these days.

As for today’s exam – I read the textbook and readings, studied all the guides, did the practice quizzes… and spent the 3 hour exam guessing at the answers. I recognized NOTHING on my exam. Ok, so it wasn’t that bad but it certainly felt like it when I was writing it.  This is not a good sign. The essay questions didn’t seem to be based on past papers or the contents of the quizzes and study guide questions. Usually I exit the exams with a certainty that I passed – even if I don’t think I did that well on it.  No such reaction after today’s exam. Here’s hoping I at least squeaked out 50% so I don’t have to retake the Enviro Chem class.

We spent the evening at the pre-deployment briefing for Drew’s tour. From my perspective it felt like a complete waste of time. I know that their services are valuable for some members and families but ours isn’t one of them. I work full time and we have no children. Most, if not all, of the services offer nothing that I can or would ever make use of. Having been through similar briefings in the past, I didn’t learn anything new at this one.

The fact that the briefing was made mandatory – as opposed to optional – made it seem patronizing. I was insulted that I’m not considered to be adult enough, or intelligent enough, to determine whether or not I need to attend a meeting outlining the available services. Too bad they didn’t have a 360 review and didn’t  solicit feedback from those who attended.  I met a few others who also felt the briefing was a waste of their precious time. I think they might have been surprised at any feedback they received. Of course, first they would have to be open to receiving feedback from those they are supposedly serving…

I certainly could have used those two plus hours studying for my next exam.