A brief taste of civilization

I am on a plane heading back to my home away from home in Yemen. A short-notice trip back to the US for a conference and then a long weekend of leave is over, and am on the second of five flights on the 36 hour marathon back to Sana'a. Delta has in-flight WiFi so I can blog from 35,000 feet - which is nice.

I was tapped to go to a conference in Tampa for a week. Tampa happens to be home to the US HQ for the Middle East, also known as US CENTRAL COMMAND or CENTCOM for short. The Navy's HQ for the region is Bahrain, but most of the other services have their HQs back in the US. There are pros and cons to each approach. I met some of the Navy guys at the main HQ and one of them was showing me this PowerPoint illustrating the status of the naval forces in the area and I had to hold in a laugh, since it was something they asked Bahrain to do for them when I was there. We thought it was a stupid request but did it, so it was interesting seeing how the home HQ was proud of their creation... and being very familiar with the Iraqi Navy, it was fun to pick it apart, as the guy had never set foot in Iraq nor actually seen the Iraqi Navy...

After the conference, I flew home for the three day weekend and am now heading back to Tampa to catch my flight back to Yemen. Two flights to get back down to Tampa, just to catch a flight to DC to hop the bird to the Middle East. I called United to see if I could fly direct from home to DC rather from home to Tampa (via Cincinnati) and then to DC, (and leave home at 1pm instead of 4:30am) but it was $657 extra for that option.... so here I am on leg 2. Minor upside is that on the first flight, I happened to sit next to one of the ESPN football personalities so was able to talk a bit about the MNF game and the Wildcat offense. On this trip, I was home for two MNF games, which was a pleasant treat - plus ESPN and all of the hype that goes with it. Now back to Orbit TV and one NFL game a week on Sunday, and no ESPN or MNF. But, I can watch all the soccer I want...

It was great to see the family again and catch up on honey-do projects. I surprised the kids this time, and the way it worked out I was able to surprise each of them individually. It was tough to leave again, but I know this was an extra special bonus and I have leave coming up in a couple of months, and am past the halfway point, so... (and, have started working the second Q-tip box!). Plus, I know what I am going back to in Yemen, now - no surprises or unknowns - so it is just going back to the same old job. When I left from my leave six weeks ago, Yemen was a vague unknown. So, any stress is gone.

We did not do too much - a bit of shopping, dining out, took the kids to the beach (it was too cold...), and went to a party at the in-laws - was nice to see everyone again. Again, some house projects to take care of, and I think I took care of everything reasonable.

Starting the approach to Tampa, so am going to sign off. A last few hours of civilization to savor before heading to the Middle East.