Day 127: Overheating

Have you ever noticed in life that a good thing can sometimes be a bad thing? Conversely, what is sometimes considered bad can end up being beneficial for us. A few examples...Money is good, right? Well usually, but we all know someone whose wealth or lust for it led to their downfall. Another example would be this deployment--fifteen months away from home and family equals bad. However, I believe that ultimately this experience is strengthening Sue and I in ways that we still don’t understand. So although this deployment is a “bad” thing, in a sense it is a “good” thing. I think you get the picture.

Well today I had a practical exercise in how good is bad and bad is good. To help me explain, first I will share a little personal secret--I have a little bladder. Yes its true, whenever we drive on a family vacation most of the “potty breaks” are for dad and not the kids. If I drink a big glass of water, I can guarantee you that within 30 minutes I will be trying to locate the facilities. A little bladder definitely is a bad thing. Because of this little problem I have, it requires that I am careful about not drinking much before I go out on a long convoy. Can you imagine me saying to my team, “hey, pull over, I’ve got to go.” Remember there is no quick stop at the gas station or McDonalds over here when nature calls. The Taliban usually don’t like it when you knock on their door and ask to borrow their bathroom.

Well today we went on a 2 hour drive south of here to a little base called Shouz. The drive down was fine. However, right as we were getting into the trucks to head home, I started having a horrible coughing spell. Try as I might I couldn’t stop coughing. I tried drinking a little water to help. Soon I had drained 2 bottles of water in my attempt to get rid of the cough. Two bottles of water with two hours of driving still to go for me and my little bladder--I knew I could be in trouble. Then something bad happened, which actually ended up being good. Our Humvee started to overheat. It got hot enough that we had to cut the A/C and turn on the heater (most of you probably know that trick). So here we are driving in our up-armored vehicle with 40 pounds of armor on and with the heater on full blast. It got hot fast. I started to sweat and I didn’t stop sweating until I had probably sweat off about 2 bottles worth of water. So the badness of my little bladder was offset by the badness of our overheating Humvee, which ultimately led to the goodness of me not having to make an emergency bathroom break. Confused yet. If not then you will understand that the badness of my cough led to the badness of me needing to eat two bowls of ice-cream for dinner, which led to the goodness of a happy tummy. I think I’ll quit now.

Here are some of the Afghan National Police forming up in Shouz as part of the graduation ceremony that we attended today.