Thursday, July 29, 2010

Staff Duty Ramblings

So here I am on staff duty. It is 0040 and I am a tad tired and bored. Only eight more hours to go! It has been a while since I have pulled staff duty, so I do not really mind very much, yet it is one of the more boring duties that the Army has. I thoroughly scared myself silly when doing the arms room checks by imagining sounds and things that were not really there. It is just a bit creepy at night by yourself. Some may ask, what does one do at staff duty? Well, the answer to that is, not very much. Upon assuming duties this evening, I watched the extra duty clean (taking off chunks of the wall while I was at dinner, which infuriated the CSM), read, looked on facebook, treated my runner to "1000 great photos by the LT" on flickr (poor guy!), and went on my security checks. That brings me up to now...which is why I am writing to you. I have a book on Palestine, but it is a bit dense for my very foggy mind right now, and I have to stay awake, so you all are listening to my incoherent ramblings. I am sure I will be bored later, and may write again.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Home Again


So Nate and I are back home again. After five stages of TransAlp we very unceremoniously exited the race after Nate was taken off a high Italian peak by Alpine rescue personnel. No worries, he is fine, but hypothermia and dehydration got the best of him. Under the recommendation from a great Italian doctor, we abandoned the race. Despite extreme amounts of suffering, TransAlp was an unforgetable experience that allowed us to meet some of the greatest cyclists/ people we have had the pleasure of knowing. Thanks to our great Canadian, Australian, English and South African friends, we made it as far as we did. My dear husband was truly disappointed that we did not get to finish, but this way we will have the opportunity to do Transalp or other long distance mountain bike adventures in the future. Regretfully, the same cannot be said for another rider who unfortunately died from unknown causes during the course of the race. This is just one more affirmation that life is fleeting, so living it to its fullest extent is ever so important. For full details of the race and interesting journey home, we will be mailing out DVDs that we are making right now of our adventure. I will mail a bunch to Alli for the NH folks, but if anyone else wants one, just tell me and I will get it in the mail to you! I will blog more later to really catch you all up.