Thursday, May 22, 2008

3...no, it has been 4 weeks home!

First, on the military front.

Reading on Petraeus hearings in Congress today off of CNN's website:
"The security situation is much improved, with overall attacks, civilian deaths, and ethno-sectarian violence all down substantially," said Petraeus, who oversaw the "surge" strategy that unfolded last year. Petraeus noted that the week ending on May 16 had the lowest level of security incidents in over four years.

Best week in 4 years as far as security incidents! That is awesome. I'm happy for the troops and for the people of Iraq. Of course, this gets little play in the States. Steve and company out there, keep up the good work, and hang in there- you think it is hot now? The summer is still coming! ;-)

I admit I thoroughly enjoyed my few hours hosting the General during his visit to An Numaniyah back on 21 January. He keeps plugging along, and the hearings were for his assignment to command CENTCOM. I'm happily out of the uniform preparing for my civilian job as a talent management consultant with Lowe's.

Second, on the home front.

After 3 weeks, my basketball isn't getting any better and the wear and tear from the deployment seems to be holding me back a bit. I'm moderately enjoying internet home searches and talking mortgages with folks as we prepare for a move to NC to start my Lowe's job. Just got a small feature box in the BYU Marriott School alumni magazine profiling my time in the sandbox, which was nice. As usual, I have a fat face in the photo- which is accurate. I'm still fat. Oh, well.

I've really enjoyed much of being home though- various activities with the kids- walks, time in the parks, rock-climbing, restaurants, etc. Visiting with old friends is also a real blessing. I'm even excited about the rain we've had over the past couple of days- the tips of the mountains are again white, and even though I've always found Utah to be rather dry, in hues of brown and grey, relative to the part of Iraq where I worked, Provo is a verdant cornucopia of life.

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