30 Days In the Desert

I'm currently back in Oklahoma, having traveled here from the Texas-New Mexico border. There I was at the White Sands missile range, which was an interesting month-long training exercise. A few things went wrong, a few things went right, but mostly things just went. I'd like to say it was a great training experience, but rather it was being kind of left to my own devices that seems to have made the most difference. I got to thinking, as I often do, and the result was perhaps more than anything else that I tend to get in my own way- second-guessing, procrastinating, and prevaricating, and a few other big words too. But at any rate, I made it a point to remember these things, and keep them in mind as I go back to what passes for regular life around here.

Out on the range, we had a live-fire exercise for our long-range artillery. I didn't get to fire the rockets (outside of my training) but did get to see them go off. That was pretty interesting! It pretty much looks like a big rocket firing, then going boom. But still, a new experience for me.

One odd thing, or perhaps not so odd, was the number of crows that seemed to follow me around. It turns out I was born with a crow or raven as a totem animal, which doesn't surprise me, but admittedly I didn't know that at the time. It seems to fit, though. Apparently the main difference between crows and ravens is that ravens are a little bigger. I also learned that owls will prey on crows- while chatty as anything during the day, crows tend to be quiet at night. They're also extremely intelligent, and tend to get into stuff. All the time I was down there, I saw crows hanging around, seeming to caw at me and watch me. Okay, I said. Perhaps the crows don't have much to do out in the desert. The really curious thing was that the whole drive back to Oklahoma, two huge crows (or were they ravens? Again, not sure what the difference is) were circling and following my truck as I drove, seeming to dip down to remind me that they were there. It was strangely comforting to see them flying along. Odin, the Norse god, is said to have two ravens- Huginn and Muninn, who go flying around the world all day and kind of report back to him at the end of the day with all manner of news of what's going on in the world. Beats CNN, I guess! Huginn , I'm told, means thought, and Muninn, wisdom. There's a surprising amount of symbolism attached to this idea- with thought and wisdom, one can examine the world around them. It seems that crows and ravens are usually associated with mysticism too, that they kind of keep the secrets and keep learning, and are also protectors. Perhaps because they do what I've seen them doing, sit up somewhere high and call out what's going on around them- they actually do seem to have different calls for this and that, and seem to like to call to each other- perhaps telling the other crows what they see. At any rate, I thought it was interesting.

Apart from that, I'm getting ready to roll (or fly, as the case may be) back to Connecticut shortly, in about two weeks. It's time for some much-needed time away from work, and time to tie up some loose ends too- also much needed. Again, if I can get out of my own way long enough to get stuff done!

I also earned my driver's badge when out in the field- basically, driving 1000 miles accident-free for the Army means just another feather in my cap, which is fine with me. The drive was about 600 miles one way, so I figure round trip puts me well in that category. It made me think about driving long-haul, also. Perhaps only locally, or along the east coast, but I love trucks, and love driving them. Maybe that's a guy thing, I don't know. But at any rate, stick with what you're good at, I've often heard. I may not be able to reenlist for my current MOS, in which case I'll be giving some serious thought to driving commercially. But fortunately I don't need to make that decision quite yet, there's still a year or so to go before my contract is up. In the meanwhile, time to relax and take it easy this weekend!