Temperatures are now topping 100 on a daily basis here in the 100 Acre Sandbox and stepping outside is essentially walking into God’s hairdryer. The heat is a jolt from the office because they are kept at icebox level, to the point where I keep a blanket, thin Nike hoodie and my LL Bean bedroom slippers at my desk.
Early this morning, I wished I’d had the blanket, because I
did a 4-hour leg of work that was as boring as watching paint dry, probably because
it was literally watching paint dry. One of the offices is being redone with
new carpet and paint, and the freshly-painted door had to stand open for 24
hours. Since the office was one that required a security clearance to enter,
someone had to guard the door as the paint dried. My shift was at 4 a.m. this
morning; it’s been a long day! It wasn’t too bad but I’d worn capris and
flipflops and my feet were so cold. I didn’t think to stop by my office and pick
up my blanket. Man, I missed it, but overall the shift wasn’t horribly bad;
there was a little loveseat and I positioned it where no one could get by me
(like there was foot traffic at 4 a.m.) and catnapped.
The dust storms are getting more and more frequent, too. Everything
turns red and visibility stinks. We aren’t allowed to take photos on compound,
but the dust storms have been bad enough to make the news, so this is what it
looks like, except we don’t have motorcycles, although we do have a lot of
people riding bikes and wandering around with grocery bags from the little
store here. Due to the dust storms, we’ve had a couple of our flights delayed
and we’re told it might happen more frequent this summer. Joy. It’s bad enough
we can only get out of here certain days a week; now if we get a dust storm and
the flight’s delayed, it really messes up travel plans.
When we’re not on R&R, we have to make our own fun.
Today there was a beach party, although I am so messed up from the early
morning shift that I skipped it. Last week, we had the most amazing thing ever
in a macaroni and cheese cookoff. We have a cafeteria here and it doesn’t occur
to me to cook, but there are some who do and about a dozen people entered
variants of mac and cheese. Everyone was welcome to taste and judge, and my
guess was there were probably close to 75 people who did. The winner was
someone who smoked his. (Same guy who routinely BBQs for big parties.)
Not everyone is super social but they still manage to have fun in their own ways. Recently, I noticed someone had put up a notice for a dog that was missing. Since we don’t have pets here – just the occasional stray fox or cat, I moved in for a closer look and discovered that someone had posted a photo of a dog, saying the cute little dog wasn’t really lost, but the person who had posted it was the owner and missed him. It made me smile. I’ve no idea who did it, but obviously someone in this place has a sense of humor.
