Connections

Trying something different today. Despite the lagging lack of sleep, I got up about a quarter to three, packed up my machine, snagged my watch cap and headed to the Boardwalk in an effort to find an internet connection. Two of our crew joined me and, to noone’s surprise, we found two more already there, camped out at a couple of the undeniably dusty tables set up near the Tim Horton’s. Sadly, Horton’s doesn’t open until 0600, so I’ll have to wait a while before I get my donut. The Green Bean is open at this hour, as is the Pizza Hut, so coffee (or a pie, I suppose) is available. I’ll go with the coffee, I suppose, then hit the DFAC at 0600.

It’s a bit cold, though. Perhaps 50^. Oh. And dusty (anticipate the theme).



This Boardwalk is an interesting construct. It feels like it’s been here forever, yet you can see the current expansion. Situated conveniently along the main drag, the City Planners (used *very* loosely) have carved out a rather large block of space, I suppose about four hundred feet on a side, and built a wood boardwalk (duh) about twenty feet wide. Along the perimeter are the aforementioned coffee/donut/pizza places, as well as a number of small gift and clothing shops, mostly housed within old CONEX boxes. The open space is the real appeal, I think. Plus it’s a non-work environment.

In the middle is mostly rock. Maybe it’s a parade ground. Maybe a good place for Presidential photo ops. Perhaps they’ll bring in some Afghanis to play that National Game of theirs with the horses and goat carcasses. One National Game they do play here is hockey, as the Canooks built a small hockey rink. They play in sneakers with a tennis ball sized balls, sticks, gloves, pads and nets. Damned entertaining, but we’re short on entertainment here.

What we have is dust, and a lot of dirt. It will probably kill this machine before I get back.

We’ve got a PX, too. Actually, there may be three or four of them, but I haven’t ventured too far in the 40 hours since I got here. There’s six DFAC’s I hear, three of which we’ve visited, all of which serve passable fare, as expected. Hopefully, they will have less runny eggs this morning.

As for the plan to get connected,… I guess if you’re reading this, I got connected sometime. For two hours last night I let the machine churn, but never got anywhere. This early morning, I’ve had better success, but have yet to see the New Post page on Blogspot. I haven’t given up yet, but may retreat to a warmer location for a while.