The Odyssey continues

It took Odysseus 10 years to find his way home after the end of the Trojan War.

It took me about 4 weeks of steaming home on a very old Naval vessel (LPD-1) to get home from the Desert Shield/Storm.

I have to keep these time frames in perspective, since I am still trying to make my way homeward. I left Camp Spann on the 5th of January. After languishing 2 weeks in Bagram and have 4 flights cancelled or held up to leave Kuwait I have a new goal. My new goal is to be out of Kuwait before the 1st of February. I think this is a realistic goal since otherwise we will be entitled to another tax-free month.

The list of policies and excuses which have kept us here is lengthy and would be even more humorous if I were not experiencing them: A broken plane, a plane iced in, a warning light, a new plane, a tired crew. In fact some are so absurd I may even use the quote I have heard so often during this deployment "You can't make this stuff up"

It would be more tolerable if we had access to our luggage. We cleared customs with our checked luggage on attempt #1 and it has been sequestered since that time. It is has been a challenge to live out of an overnight bag for 4 nights. I would have enjoyed spending more time in the gym to process and exercise my plight. But, the gym will not let anyone use the equipment in boots. I tried the elliptical in socks, but got blisters.

I have tried to look for the silver linings. Anything worth having is worth waiting for. Since we have to strip our linen every time we 'leave' I have experienced the cleanest linen of my deployment here. And my most recent- they must be keeping us up all night so that we will adjust to the time change better.

With luck I will be home in a few days.

Of course I keep remembering one definition of insanity- Repeating the same action over and over again in hopes of a different outcome.