Good evening everyone! Hopefully everyone is doing great! I had a break in training this past week and it was nice and relaxing. I really didn’t do much of anything and was mainly a homebody…especially since my car is dead. The absolute best part of the week at home was that Amanda worked overnights on last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. That meant that she only had to work on Wednesday during the week. The result was that we had a nice and lazy at home vacation.

This week is going to be another week of training. This time we are at Purdue University doing agriculture training. I have much higher expectations for this than I did for my language and cultural training class at Indiana University. This should be much more black and white so that means that my non-language learning brain should just suck this stuff up.

I’ve been on military leave since June 1st, and so it has been extremely strange spending nearly the entire month not working at the 9-5 grind.

In other news, I’ve been reading a ton lately. I’ve always enjoyed reading and I’d go in 2-3 book spurts. I’d go to the library and check out a few books and read them…then I would forget to renew them. I once renewed a library book for 2 years because I never could remember to return it. The other thing that I’d do would be buy a couple books and then read them in a week or two. I’d then be out of books to read and go without reading for a few months. The difference since December has been e-books.

I was given a Kindle for Christmas and in April I bought an iPad. Thanks to the Kindle apps on my iphone and the iPad, along with the trusty Kindle, I’ve burned through nearly two dozen books. It’s amazing how easy it is to read if the books are always readily accessible to you. Not to mention so easy to purchase.

For example, I’m reading this 14 book series and just finished the 4th book in the series. Normally, if this was a “real” book, I’d have to go to the store or the library to get the 5th book, but not with e-books. I went to Amazon and within 30 seconds, the 5th book in the series is open and on my lap. If you enjoy reading, nothing compares to this.

Ok, that’s it for now…I have some other things to talk about, but that’s for a later date.

Well, I wrapped up my weeklong language and cultural training class at IU. It was a real smoker and I’ve basically learned very little Pashto, but the cultural training should be invaluable. If anything it did a great job to address some of the common misconceptions that I had about Afghanistan.

After I wrapped up my classes on Friday, I hauled ass back home. Amanda and I went out for dinner and then she basically had to leave for work. She is working overnights Fri-Sat-Sun, but it’s all good because she basically has this next week off of work.

I’m off next week too. I’m on military leave from work, and have no training this next week. So it will be nice to hang out together a bunch.

On Saturday morning I drove the 2 1/2 hours north to meet some friends for a bachelor get together. We golfed, had a little cookout and then hit the casino until 2:30 or 3. This morning, I visited my parents and my grandparents. It was nice spending some time with them.

On a side note, my car which has one payment left, is shot. The engine started knocking when I was up there. I babied the thing home so that I wouldn’t get stranded in the middle of a bunch of corn fields. Thankfully, I made it all the way back. The bad news is that the two or three options that could be wrong all involve some significant cost. I’m talking $2-4,000. My car is 6 years old and I was planning on getting a new one when I get back.

I only “needed” the car to last me 5 or 6 more weeks. I’m not about to spend a ton of money on a car that is going to sit for a year. I frankly don’t feel like even dealing with the stress of mechanics and repair bills. I think that I’m going to just get by without a car until I leave.

I’ll probably have Amanda take it to the mechanic a month or two after I’m gone and see what the repair cost will be. If it’s major then we’ll see what we can get for it. Basically, if the repair is more than $2500 there is no sense in repairing it, since the repair will basically only take the car up to the blue book trade in value. She’ll have a power of attorney for me, so she’ll be able to sign the title over or do whatever.

What a kick in the nuts… but there is nothing that I can really do right now, so I’m taking the easy way out and just not dealing with it now. I know that I should take it to the mechanic but not dealing with it just sounds so much better.

Have you ever tried to learn a foreign language? I have…and I have failed miserably. I spent years taking Spanish in school. I never enjoyed it and the only reason I have a bunch of college credit in Spanish was that it was required to graduate. I’m now trying to learn another language…

In preparation for my little trip to Afghanistan this year, I’m getting a crash course in Pashto. Pashto is the language in the area that I’ll be working. We are spending 10-12 hours a day trying to learn it and let me just say that it’s tough. I guess that my brain just isn’t wired for language…

It’s really frustrating…because I actually have an excellent memory. I can retain an inordinate amount of information, but when it comes to foreign languages, I just stink.

On a non-language note, I just received a promotion. I’m now a Captain in the Army, which is cool. For those of you not abreast of military rank, it’s the third ring on the Officer ladder. Typically a Captain is responsible for a Company of Soldiers, usually between 80-120 strong. It’s basically mid-level management but with a lot more responsibility.

I’ve been in the military for over 10 years now, and have served as an enlisted Soldier, Noncommissioned Officer, and as a commissioned officer. I’ve been a Private, Private First Class, Specialist, Sergeant, 2nd Lieutenant, 1st Lieutenant, and now a Captain.

I’ll have to post the picture of my promotion when I get a copy of it.

That’s it for now…time to read and relax.