Hillah, Iraq.

Our mission for tonight was canceled early, also due to not working and playingwell with others, so I decided to spend the morning cleaning. I took most ofthe stuff out of my hooch, swept it out, then mopped it with water lightlydosed with Clorox and the local Mop and Glo. Ah, the heady scent of bleach andwhat passes for Springtime Fresh in Iraq. By the way, cleaning products notburdened by EPA regulations work remarkably well.

I then cleaned my weapons thoroughly. Weapons need to be cleaned lightly afterevery mission because there is so much dust. However, once a week or so, Itake my pistol and rifle pretty much completely apart. Light on the cleaningand lubricating fluid, and heavy on the elbow grease. Weapons and hoochcleaned, we went to chow.

The SF guy so keen on the pool, Levi, has developed Levi’s Six Step Buff andTan Plan. Levi is somewhat vague on exactly what the steps are, but he isliberal with advice on what is not on The Plan. Apparently, eating pie and icecream, even if only one flavor of ice cream, is not on the Six Step Buff andTan Plan. The only step Levi actually quantified was Step 6a: Build A Pool.Apparently, the Six Step Buff and Tan Plan is more Six Principal Steps, withallowances for subclauses

However, today was not to be a pool working day. The temperatures are alreadybreaking into the mid 100s, so we decided to finally use the two mammoth cratesof camouflage netting that we were issued. We spent the day hanging cammienetting over our hooches to cut the direct sunlight.

Cammie netting is a pain to work with, but it makes a HUGE difference. It iseasily ten to fifteen degrees cooler under the cammie netting, and the coveredhooches are remarkably cooler. My hooch and the other half of the SF hoochesdidn’t get done because we all started to get sunburned, but we will get thosedone soon.

There used to be cots on top of some of the hooches. These cots were also partof Levi’s Six Step Buff and Tan Plan, although which step I cannot tell you. Iam confident it was one of the Tan steps. The cot removal was met with acertain indignation by those members of the team on The Plan, indignationslightly ameliorated by the additional coolness of the hooches.In case you are interested, here is the local weather: http://tinyurl.com/d3wfp

Try the following if the tiny url has expired.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/local/IZXX0003?countryCd=
IZ&countryName=Iraq&lswe=iraq&itemName=Iraq&lswa=WeatherLocalUndeclared&what=Wea
therLocalUndeclared&y=10&geoCd=4&itemCd=IZ&x=13&geoCdChild=1.