I feel as though I must apologize before I start my post. It has been over two weeks since I last posted a message on my blog and this is almost inexcusable. I have looked at the empty slate infront of me many times and have drawn blanks on every occasion. I must admit that when I first started writing this blog the muse of experience allowed me to pour out my experience as though it were tangible. Now it seems that the vessel has ran dry through the monotony of routine and the slowness of my tour leaves my writing parched. I will report that which there is to report and push through these slow months with the humility that they offer.
The Troop continues to show through as being the tie that binds everyones sanity together. We have been out in this wilderness of sorts for nearly three months now and we get along well enough to keep spirits high. This is in part to the fact that as a member of the Canadian Forces you are entitled to, when participating in an overseas operation, a period of leave throughout your deployment. Most of the young gunners take their leave early on and as November was our second month here they have taken their entitlement and come back already. They seem to be rested and ambitious upon being back in the country. I guess the trials and tribulations that are surely to come are waiting in the distance. The upside is that when we are getting sick of each other, my estimate is four months into the mission so sometime around the start of February, the fighting season picks up again giving us work to keep our idle minds in check.
Christmas is, as you know, just around the corner and many of us have received packages from family and friends. I thought it was tough being a kid while attempting to resist the urge to open christmas presents but it is almost impossible to avoid as an adult. They sit on a shelf three feet from the head of my bed so that when I go to sleep and wake up they are looking me in the eye. I know what they are, since you have to list what is in the packages when you ship them, but I still want to rip a corner in the side of them just to see exactly what it is. I guess the kid inside of us lives on in some way for ever.
Finally the weather update. We have had some rain since I last wrote; to the amount of just above an inch. It came over the course of a day and was far from the monsoon rains I have heard about. It was the slow sort of rain that puts a smile on my dads face and brings the boys to the bar for a couple of days. None the less it was nice and brought new life about our compound with several weeds sprouting at random. It would not surprise anybody back home that it oddly resembled Russian Thistle. I guess I will have to bring some pictures back home for speculation. Beyond the rain the daytime highs are roughly around 16 degrees Celsius and they dip down to around zero at night.
Take care,
Bdr Fossum
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