Other nightlife in Iraq are pretty damn annoying, too-like the mosquitoes that fly in swarms around here. In the daytime, flies continually buzz around you--I really hate those flies that follow you wherever you go, and continue to land on your head and face. Then at night you get the mosquitoes all night long.

We had our first visit from a scorpion tonight in the internet cafe. Crawled right over one guy's boot and over towards another guy. He didn't last too long, though--we had to kill him, for sure. About 6 inches long, black, and a really big stinger. Not too pretty to look at.

The whole civil war thing is a real downer, I must say. I'm not too interested in a civil war here in Iraq, let alone fighting in one that isn't American, but the last post was a bit tongue-in-cheek--the pundits in the US say that civil war is close, so, I'm holding my breath over here. Constitutional referendum is, um, let's see....4 days. Great stuff.

Went on some patrols of the area over the last few days. It's fairly interesting around here with Ramadan and all that. For one, everything is reverse-so the Iraqis are not supposed to eat, drink, smoke, etc. through the whole day. So once the sun goes down, the town is much more active--people are out, going to the mosque for services, eating at big Ramadan feasts, generally being regular people, only in the dark.

Driving around in the streets during daylight was a bit weird-didn't see anyone out walking about--buildings are run down, without windows, random sandbags are thrown up in defensive positions (who the hell was out here manning this thing?), barbed wire up on walls. And no one was out due to Ramadan, so that is an eery feeiling. Most of the time I'm looking intently out the window for snipers in any windows, any RPGs, any IEDs laying around in the streets (if you're lucky to see them-I didn't even see mine coming the 1st time around), or other general "bad shit" that's out there.

We drove by a couple of other Iraqi patrols that were out (Shit, where is that guys helmet? Oh yeah, {relief} he's not part of my unit). They don't even wave as they drive by.

We found what was left of a weapons cache and dismounted to walk around and check things out.

As I'm standing there looking around, I kinda thought Iraq wasn't that bad of a place. I mean, it has a lot of potential (for one, there's a ton of oil here=not like it has to be broke). The sun was just starting to set-it was a really nice sunset, actually. The desert has a real harsh beauty to it, what with all the sand, that desert wind that blows a lot, plus the unique plant and animal life. Mainly it is man that turns it into a stinking squalid Third World crap hole, with all his trash and poor habits.

Anyway, as I was standing there trying to concentrate about looking for insurgents trying to kill me (NO, I will not get distracted and think about a chick with awesome legs wearing those strappy Jimmy Choo's), it was really nice. The farm nearby had a lot of activity-dogs running around barking at us, a woman dressed completely in black, with a black veil and all, hustling the children off away from us infidels, in the distance i heard a prayer crier starting the call to prayer for the evening prayer {some goose bumps}, the temperature was comfortable, the breeze a little nice after the day's heat, plenty of trees around in this flatter farmland--clustered around the farm house and near the road, the brilliant sun was slowly setting to the west over the farm house, and I looked back over at the hummvee with my gunner sticking out of the top behind a machine gun--and I'm like thinking "Why do people want to kill us here? It ain't that bad here. We could leave, like, real quick."

So the patrol was over, relatively uneventful, no attacks, made it back to the camp after passing a few USMC checkpoints, went on and deposited my gear.

CPT L, a good friend who was out and about with us, guilted me into attending the evening Ramadan feast with the Iraqi soldiers. Now I'm not always a big fan of the Iraqi food (I love those big carp fish sliced whole down the middle, what with those fish eyes staring up at me...mmmmm) but I gave in to the guilt and headed down to the chow hall (love that whole left hand thing as they are handling my food).

But the meal turned out all right--mutton on the bone, very tender, lots of rice, some good bean soup (I put some chunks of mutton into it), fresh fruit, chicken, fresh baked flat bread, some pretty decent lemon custard for desert, and hot chai (sweet tea) at the end. In the end, I was glad for the guilt, even if CPT L is smart ass, but I enjoyed his company at dinner and left full (only time will tell if my digestive system will agree).