Is it Too Early For A Season Change?

Well, I don’t think so. I am fully confident in this proclamation: We are fully in the grip of Spring!

Yes, I know, it is the end of January, how are we part way into Spring already. Well here in Iraq we actually have five seasons. Those seasons are Fall, Spring, Summer, Oh-my-god-I-feel-like-I-am-going-to-catch-on-fire, and finally second-summer.

It is actually quite nice here right now. The nights are cool, about 50 degrees, and the days are nice, about 65-70 with some slight breezes. It is actually quite like spring you have in the US. You have bees zinging by and blooms bursting. We have AK-47 rounds zinging by and mortars bursting. Really, it is very similar.

Actually we did have winter here, it was just really short. It was about a week long. The temperatures dropped into the high 30s at night and it rained just about every day.

Rain in a country that doesn’t get rain is miserable. The entire place turns into a quagmire. You can’t keep anything clean, and there is mud everywhere. It became a twice daily chore to go to eat because no matter how hard you tried, your boots would be caked with mud in just a matter of steps and would quickly become about as light as a cinder block. You would then take about five minutes to clean off your boots and after eating you got to do it all over again on the walk back. Some people would take a truck the 800 meters to the dining facility and while I would outwardly jeer them, inside I was really just jealous.

Other than the mud, it was actually quite cold. I have some cold weather gear, but I somehow always forgot to wear it. What truly frightens me is that two months from now when it is over 100 degrees, I will be wearing exactly the same clothes I was wearing when it was 40 degrees. I really hope my body adapts, because I don’t have any different clothes to wear.

I have heard people complain when they get on the phone or get a letter all the person talks about is the weather. To me, it is one of the most important things. Sure, you can’t do anything about it, it is always changing, and the weather on one side of the message has nothing to do with the weather on the other side of the message. But weather is the one constant. You both have it. It affects both sides. And while the effects of weather may be more or less profound for you, it is something to which everyone can always relate.

Till next time, here’s hoping the bees are far away and the blooms decide to burst somewhere else.