More to follow...

Here are some misc photos from the tour so far....a meaty entry coming soon. Dawn Patrol in the mountains between K.C. and the ArgandabTaking a break at an ANP OP As much as walking in the mountains can sometime be punishment, the view always makes up for it!Foot patrol in the Dand DistrictWheat harvest at sunset These buggers are all smiles..
An ANA soldier sees the result of his picture with a young boy

A classic photograph

No Indian Summer here....

For those of you keeping up with the current events in Afghanistan you will all know that the elections have come and gone. The widespread chaos and violence the Taliban promised was apparently all smoke and mirrors because from our end it was relatively quiet. This, irregardless of the outcome of the elections can be viewed as a success seeing 100% of the security for the elections was provided by Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). We on the other hand were merely on stand by incase things got out of hand. So when you prepare yourself for the apocalypse and things go smoothly I guess you could say the elections were anti-climatic. This is very positive because we got some down time and the ANSF showed to Afghans they were capable of handling the situation.

The same day as the elections took place the random quote of the day on my blog was this : The crisis of today is the joke of tomorrow. H.G. Wells (1866-1946)

I got a laugh out of this because it seemed so fitting. The build up and media hype of everything election related really made it out to be the apocalypse. Now in hindsight it appears our crisis was nothing more the just a good laugh over a couple near beers half a world away from home!

A sad day...

Today I was told by someone outside my chain of command that I needed to get my haircut. This is very sad seeing my outrageous hair is awesome...Im not sure how I'm going to dodge this shit missile....

Present look....

This is what I may have to settle for....

What do you think??

When in doubt post photos!

Well it has come to my attention that my readership has started to dwindle. This comes as no surprise to me as I haven't had much interesting to say of late and we are pretty tight lipped about what we have been doing. They month of August is flying by at a speed that has even surprised me. That is good news on all fronts! I really do apologize for not posting as much as I would like however I will try and keep you distracted with some photos for the time being. Stayed tuned and I promise things will get more interesting. Prep To Move ( Leaving PBW) Patroling in the Dand District Do these things ever leave MSG? A U.S. Blackhawk touches down on the HLS

On the mend...

An Afghani Jingle truck. All Afghani Vehicles and possessions (even their weapons) are "jingled" up. I guess it's their version of pimp my ride.

Today I have a second day off in a row. This precious downtime has not been because of a light schedule, it was imposed by the doctor here at the PRT. Let me explain before some of you start to panic!

Over the past week I developed a cold and generaly felt like crap. Just as I thought I was getting better I came down yesterday with a realy bad case of the flu. I woke up in the morning and felt like I had been hit by an jingle truck (see photo). So the boys headed out on patrol and I got left behined to nurse my wounds. I finally decided to go to the medics after spending the majority of an hour on the floor in the bathroom and beleive me it wasnt pretty. I honestly haven't been sick like that in a really long time. So the doc checked me out, put me in isolation (to prevent the spreading ), gave me a shot of something to knock me out and then forced me to rehydrate or else he would have had to hook me up to an IV. Long story short after about 24 hours the worst of it has passed and I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

It is still insanely hot here but beleive it or not at nights we are starting to feel a drop in temperature. Thank God.

Besides that not much else is new here. Same thing different day. Hopefully I will have no interesting news for you all soon.

Sue & Ken: Thank You very much for the cooler, now the guys in our other truck have the same luxsury as we do! Its amazing how such small little things can make such a big impact on moral. They too now have cold water at their finger tips.

Kass & Olie: Thanks for the books and everything, it is much appreciated!

Better Late then Never..

Relaxing the Panwayi District Centre on a stockpile of wheat. This photo would definetly make the cover of Counter Terrorism Quarterly if such a magazine exsisted.

Well it's been a while since my last rant so I guess I'm due for an update. We have been quite busy since my previous Michael Jackson rant, luckily we did a fair bit of travelling around the Province of Kandahar. I enjoy keeping busy as it makes time go by quickly, settling into a routine is often impossible but then again it keep us on our toes. When doing a lot of moving around I get the chance to bump into some of my best friends and just being able to shoot the shit with them for 5 minutes or 2 hours is always fun. Seeing them and hearing that they are okay takes a load off and makes whatever worries I may have had fade away.

For those not exactly current on your current affairs you may not know Afghanistan is having its Presidential Elections on the 21st of August. The bad guys have been doing there best to disrupt the prep for these elections and will no doubt have some kind of idea on how to try and ruin the vote. We on the other hand are completely prepared and ready for anything that they decided to bring our way.

Personally I've been motivated a lot of late to get into shape. I've been running intensely around 7 to 12 km daily and doing a couple crossfits a week. It's a great way to blow off steam and a good way to forget about the job. Unfortunately yesterday I came down with a cold. Its hard to belive that with temperatures constantly in the 50s and 60s that I could get a cold but apparently its just a run down imunne system. Either way its not fun and hopefully it won't last too long.

I have been spending my free time trying to get organized with Concordia University, I've been trying to get back into my program upon my return to Canada. If you thought dealing with a University was tough try doing it from half a world away with an 8.5 hour time difference. Its not pleasant to say the least. At most it's keeping me busy and I keep crossing off the days on the calendar.

I hope all of you are doing well and are profiting from whatever good weather mother nature out of pitty has decided to send your way.

Other News:
Aunt Adele I got your package, thank you very much for everything it is much appreciated, thanks for the cooler always having 12 bottles of cold water handy is priceless!

ThanksCongratulations Greg & Melissa! Brendan Biezing was born at 06:16 July 31st 2009, All the best!