Am I Nuts?

One of the privileges of having a blog is that it provides a forum for me to express my views. At the risk of coming across as ignorant, am I nuts for for believing that we are wasting our blood and treasure in the middle east? Previously I posted on how the last American units to leave Iraq skulked out of the country out of fear of  a Taliban ambush and reprisal. Is that how a supposed world power conducts itself when engaged in enforcing policy? Especially in a country where we invested over ten years of battle-which included trillions of dollars and over 5000 of our country's brightest and bravest lives? Now we remain in the quagmire that is Afghanistan; a country that lacks central authority just about everywhere and can't even define its borders. It is a primitive, hostile place mostly governed by semi nomadic tribes that have allegiance only to themselves. They don't even have a common language other than Pashto (and that is an Iranian dialect) and they are governed by the iron hand of often brutal tribal elders. A thriving, unregulated economy flourishes vis a vis the poppy farms which are harvested to make opiates. Am I nuts for believing that a lot of Americans don't even know these and other facts. I also believe that; other than the loss of life, they really don't care about what goes on over there on a day to day basis. Now our forces have committed an error; albeit a major one, by desecrating their beloved Koran by placing it in the garbage and burning it. This act occurred in a prison and the Koran was allegedly being used to disseminate information by the Taliban. Even after our in country leaders apologized profusely, the riots and bloodshed continue. The people of Afghanistan have made it abundantly clear that they do not want us in their country. Now two more Americans have died by the ultimate form of betrayal; at the hands of a supposed ally. Yet we remain and life continues as it has for thousands of years. Before he passed my father expressed his displeasure over our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. This from a man who served his country faithfully and bravely for decades and went into harms way countless times. It was both cathartic and shocking to hear from him. I said long ago and I stand behind my believe that nothing will change by our continued involvement in the middle east. We prevailed in a cataclysmic World War because our people were united and determined to defeat the Axis. And this was when we were linked just by print media and radio. People knew who Hirohito, Stalin, Churchill, Mussolini and others were and we were determined and steadfast in our resolve. Unfortunately, the American people are not behind this fallacy that is our foreign policy these days. I may be nuts, but I believe that the majority of us are just tired of our continued involvement in the middle east. Call me crazy, but if we somehow prevailed, I seriously doubt that a "free" and "democratic" Afghanistan will keep the Taliban or any other terrorist organization from acting any differently than they do now.

Boomtown

This post isn't about Boomtown, the Toby Keith CD. The title did remind me of it and, if you're going to listen to that mass produced dribble out of Nashville, it's arguably some of his best. There are signs of an oil boom all over the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas. New pickups are a dime a dozen and the landowners lucky enough to have mineral rights are dressed like dandies strutting into town on a Friday night. The locals have their hackles up; bitching about the hyper inflated prices for everything, while happily pocketing the proceeds. Some of the worst food you've ever eaten is being served in the local greasy spoons and people are liking it. To be fair you can find some decent eateries around, you just have to look. Almost condemned buildings are seeing new life and formerly "dead" main streets are buzzing again. Except for Walmart, most of the big box stores haven't made the plunge yet. So your only recourse is to pay the aforementioned hyper inflated prices and hit the local Ace Hardware or Super S Store. Plots of hardscrabble land, barely good enough to graze livestock on, have become part of a real estate boom. Very few can afford to purchase the land now; but, those that have it have turned them into RV parks and terminals for oil equipment. Local land clearing and heavy equipment companies are running night and day to make pads. RV's are parked on top of one another on what I call bald ass prairie (little or no shade anywhere) and workers are glad to have the spot. Contract help has to drive over 100 miles daily to and from the rig because all the local flop houses are full. Even then a game of room hopscotch occurs as the hotel struggles to honor prior reservations. I don't know what happened to McDonalds, Burger King, KFC and others ( maybe the high land prices), but they are few and far between. Only Dairy Queen seems established out here and they are doing a land office business. Epic drives for consumables are the order of the day, so an accurate list is a necessity. You don't want to drive 80-100 miles only to find out you forgot the bread or bacon. Now you know why we are really enjoying being only a few miles from town. If you have a skill, you can almost name your salary. Truck drivers/CDL holders are seeing 4 and 5 figure bonuses just for signing on with a company. Most stay under the 100 mile trip limit to stay away from logging and work day and night. Graduate students fresh out of college, knowledgeable in geology, have a  "golden ticket" here. Then you have the army of vendors that work the rigs day and night. If they need it, they do not want to wait for it, and hotshots are in demand. I bet some in and around Houston wish they'd bought up all that oil equipment when the bottom fell out in the 70's. A little time down here and you start knowing where places like Refugio, Nixon, Yorktown, Three Rivers and Carrizo Springs are. You learn to embrace the Hispanic culture and admire the mostly hard working folk that comprise it. Along with their language there's the language of the rigs to learn. Words and phrases like tripping pipe, reaching TD, fracking, company man, spudding, the cellar, etc. Yep, it's boom times down here and if you can laugh at all the craziness and put up with the inconveniences, there's money to be made.

I'll Huff and I'll Puff

Having spent years in Oklahoma and traveled to many places, I've seen my fair share of windy locales. I have to say I have never seen the wind blow like it does in South Texas. Although Chicago sometimes is called the "Windy City" in reality it's not even close. Dodge City takes the prize with Amarillo a close second. Last night, and continuing through today, we had sustained winds of over 30 mph with gusts in the 40's. The motor home was rocking and the wind howled  and swirled outside. At "oh dark thirty" we stumbled out of bed to the cacophony of the slide out awning extending, flapping and retracting with the wind. It's not a simple process to retract the slide out because we try to make our little coach a home. Therefore a lot of stuff has to repositioned first. Those of you that live without slide outs have my admiration-I don't know what we'd do without the extra space. I'm sitting across from the couch in my recliner and I can touch it with my feet. Too cramped for me. But, I digress. In the close to six months we've been down here, the main awning has been out over a period of days maybe twice. And that was when we were in a spot where we could tie it to a fence post. Lately, we rarely, if ever, extend the awning. In contrast, one summer in Missouri we left it out most of the time. I have tried the tie downs, but in this windy environment they just slow you down when you have to stow the awning. It's not mentioned often but; a part of Gate Guarding in South Texas is managing and dealing with the wind. You may want to check out this website which shows the extremes of weather we have in the U.S.-how about 134 degrees in Death Valley, California and -80 degrees in Prospect Creek, Alaska. Or that Nowata, Oklahoma got to thirty below zero last winter (2011) Fascinating!


http://web2.airmail.net/danb1/usrecords.htm

All Part of It

They have been working on a huge production pad right in front of our RV for about two weeks. It looked like a test facility for Caterpillar. They supposedly finished and it rained. The next morning we had a large lake out front. Needless to say, they went back at it again with bulldozers, graders and the like.The noise and dust has been horrendous. All part of it. I believe they finally think they have it level because they have brought in concrete trucks (15 of them) to add to the pad. Now we have added concrete DUST to the mix. All part of it. Well we finally succumbed to it all and have closed the RV up and turned on the air conditioning. You can't step outside for very long as you'll start coughing. All part of it-gotta love working the gate.