Thursday, February 4, 2010

Stuck Inside FOB Warrior With The McHenry Blues Again

Its past 1am and I am once again waiting on a helio in Kirkuk.
I am constantly amazed by how much time I spend waiting on aircraft since I joined the Army, especially since I am in an Armor Battalion, in an Armor Brigade, in the only Armor Division in the whole US Military. But I suppose if I wasn't a a helicopter it would be a plane, and if it wasn't either of those it would be a convoy. Patience is a virtue they say. To me it seems wasteful of time.

Time. People say they never have enough Time, but I suspect they may be lying to themselves. I just came off of 15 days of the best leave I have ever had and I am convinced it was so good because I made a conscious effort not to waste any of my time at home. I admit that my sleep suffered for it more often than not, and maybe there was a night or two I should I spend doing something other than what I did, but I'm not loosing sleep over it. The point is I made the time to do the things I wanted/needed to do.
It may be however that when one is up against a deadline one feels the press of time more readily than in one's everyday life. And that is when you find yourself claiming you have no time. We put things off until tomorrow and next week and so forth until we turn around and we're too old, too tired, and we have even less time.

I once made that mistake and I shan't make it again. And I know everyone and their mother likes to spout clever quips about carpe-ing some diem, regardless of the fact that most of those people's ideas about seizing days involve things so god-awfully boring I for one would rather stay in bed. But they have the right idea. Life isn't really that short, but its rare we find ourselves in a position to enjoy the fuck out of it. Before we know it we'll be old and cranky and even more pressed for time than we claim to be now.

So I attempt to enjoy my days sitting on the flight-line, looking at every Black Hawk and Kiowa that floats by. If nothing else I can mull over grand memories and day-dream about times yet to come.

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