Christmas was sometime this week. I must've missed it.

The last few days have been a confusing mess of daytime and nighttime, sleep, work and time off, in the midst of which I purely and simply lost track of days.

Honestly, losing track of days wasn't much of a bad thing. I would work from, say, twelve to midnight one day, stay up reading a book until ten in the morning, when I would sleep through the afternoon and wake up for a shift starting at midnight. I feel like someone who has just come out of tumbling underwater in the surf - the ride was unpleasant and confusing, but quicker than expected.

I did listen to several episodes of "This American Life" and "Speaking of Faith" - two radio shows that I enjoy downloading and listening to. I haven't had the brain energy to read anything significant in spanish, and I am still hurting too much to really work out.

I also read "Empire Falls" by Richard Russo. I didn't really know what to expect because Russo was introduced to me by an fictitious character in a comic strip (Caulfield in "Frazz"), but "Empire Falls" was a very good read. I was simply awed by the wide range of interesting, believeable, endearing characters. Also, Russo can bring up every feeling from hope to despair and humor to horror in the space of just a few sentences. Some of the images, like that of an abducted, senile priest taking confessions at the end of a bar, are unforgettable. It looks like I'll be taking literary advice from comic strip characters again!

The high point of this past week was definitely today's MOUT (Military Operations in Urban Terrain) range. A lot of much-needed going back over basics, getting used to yet another set of SOPs, and some good live-fire. We drilled the targets, and moved quickly through the iterations to stay warm in the chilly wind. My weapon worked flawlessly, which always gives me a good feeling.

And the low point of the week was working a few shifts at the command post, which was beyond boring. Probably the worst thing about the command post is being close to the company's high-ranking personel. Apparently, they are great leaders... I think they'd be a great team for Operation Colonize Pluto.