10 hrs later

So I slept 10 hours last night - well, except for the part where my boss came to check and see that i was still alive. Apparantly we (the base) were attacked last night. I dunno. I slept through the whole thing. I did wake up to him pounding on the door though.
Fixed my bike today. Much better now. I also built some shelves. Quite possibly (given how much we're being paid an hour over here) the most expensive plywood shelves ever. With 4 guys building them, I'd say they cost ~ $2000 + materials.
No cool bugs today, though I did see some increased hornet and fly activity. I hear they get a lot worse, and then the sand fleas come. Yippee!
I'm exhausted. We had a mission going tonight that I had to stick around for, and thus I'm now going to bed sometime after midnight. Not a bad 16 hour day.
Oh - and I'm going to try and respond more to comments via my own comments - in the same comment section. This is a recommendation of ixoj. Have a great day!

The Jackals

The past few days have been kinda rough on ol' Ry. And here's why - we've had little or nothing to do at work. I've never been paid so much to do so little. That, plus the utter lack of a social life right now. I think part of the problem is that with the install team still here, there hasn't been much of a schedule. Hopefully things will get a little more defined once they take off, and I can find consistant times for working out, going to the hospital to visit Iraqi nationals, etc. I also had time to read and answer emails, but after not recieving any I realized it was the weekend and perhaps the blog wasn't being checked as much. (ryan_t_ward@hotmail.com)
Example of rough schedule: I had to wake up this morning at 3, ride my bike (which is busted - more on that in a sec), go to work and turn on our satellite link, do nothing for 7 hours, then work like a dog ripping down another dish. Finally got done about 5:15. Oh, and no breakfast or lunch.
But on a cool note, I saw a ginormous hornet and a real life scarab beetle yesterday, and this morning while riding to work I had to yell at some Jackals to quit chasing me. The busted bike? From hopping too many curbs, the handle bars have come quite loose. That's tomorrow's project.
I'm grateful for this experience, but I don't think this particular lifestyle is for me. Too lonely.

Talk amongst yourselves

So I have a question for all familiar with BYU housing.
It seems that I have a brother coming home soon from his mission and will be
wanting for a place to sleep next fall. My mother is trying to find a place
he can live with his friends, but also trying to coordinate this effort with
those friends' moms. With a rent between 250-265 + utilities, where is the
best place for my brother to make his residence? Right now they are
thinking The Brittany, King Henry, or the Colony. I propose Roman Gardens.
What do you propose, and why? Please, pros and cons. Thanx.

One week down

So today marks one week in Iraq. Only 12 more to go - if they all go this fast I'll be home in no time.
I called my parents this morning - it was last night for them. Very nice to hear from home. Then it was to work the entire day. The low point of my day was hauling sandbags with the GIs. It really wasn't much fun. The high point was sitting in 70 degree blue skies on top of our bunker, just watching planes and helicopters fly around.
I have to go. We have a mission early tomorrow morning, and I volunteered to run our equipment (since everybody else did it earlier this week). So I have to be there by 0330 local time.
May everyone have a funtacular day!

Sweet Ride

So I got a sweet ride today. A full suspension mountain bike. It was covered with dust, and had two different locks on it, but I checked around and nobody was using it (at least in the past 4 months, and since we only stay for 3 months...) so I decided to make it mine, for my tour anyway.

It rides pretty good, and will save me mucho time travelling on the base. I already took it on a sweet jump - got about a foot and a 1/2 in the air - I actually nailed the landing, which should surprise everyone who has ever gone mountain biking with me (I tend to crash more than everyone else combined - but I get some sweet scars from it!).

On other news, while we no longer are wearing the body armor all the time, they did issue a base email stating that we can't leave the base without lots of specific paperwork. They specifically stated that "This is not a sight seeing trip." Gee, that's really too bad. I was really hoping to get off base for some R&R this weekend. Psych! (for all you 80s lovers out there, that's for you.)

Doing good

So I've been working on a way to post pics to this. I figure one or more of you might be interested in seeing Iraq, or perhaps even seeing me in Iraq. However, I continue to be frustrated by the computers here. Hopefully I'll get it worked out soon.
Today was an OK day. This morning while installing air conditioning ducts on my satellite antenna (which is one of the things I build) I heared to a bunch of rounds being fired from a guard tower. That was kinda cool, since I was really far away. But even cooler was seeing a pair of Apaches take off haulin' in that direction, followed by two full Blackhawks.
I was happy to find a way to get onto my blog and read the comments - thank you so much! Right now things have been too busy to do much personal emailing, so that's pretty much all I'm getting right now - please keep commenting!
I also got to see a pretty cool insect today - no scorpion, sorry Dave. It was an ant. At first I thought it was a spider, since it was the size of a quarter, but no, just a big mean black ant.

New Digs

So I've moved into my new trailer - it's nice not to be living in a tent with 30 other guys.  However, wearing body armor and helmet to the shower and dining facilities is no fun - we are currently on alert that there might be attacks on the base, so we have to wear them whenever not in a protected facility.  Other than that, everything is pretty chill. 

Oh - I went to church services last night (the Mormons church).  Kinda cool, pretty boring.  It was nice to take the sacrament, but the talks could've been a little more engaging.  Some of my co-workers/ brothers in the gospel crashed pretty hard. 

I saw some Cobra attack choppers last night.  That was sweet.  We continue to hear 50mm machine guns go off - sometimes prompting the question "Is there a shooting range around here?"  To which I always reply, "Yes, but they don't use paper targets!"  Have a great day!

Hello from Balad, AFB, Iraq

So I did arrive.  After a day in Spain (beautiful weather there) I arrived in a rain storm here in Iraq.  This resulted in lots of mud and not too much fun...  But we got our entire C-5 unloaded, and started working.  Worked the entire day, and then found out about our living quarters.  The tents we were supposed to be in sucked.  Dirt floors, which had been swamped in rain, and there were already people living in them.  So we all just slept in a shelter in our work area - 25 guys just sleeping on cots.

Waking up weird times during the day to F-16s taking off via afterburners is fun.  Yesterday I saw an Apache.  Friday night we had an 'Incoming' warning in my work area, and I had to wear body armor + helmet the entire night.  Stupid morters.  I'm maybe a half mile from the base perimeter...  Oh - and that night I was up until after 1 working in the 35 degree weather. 

Anyways, I'm good.  I'm currently posting via email, so no pics.  Hopefully I'll find a way around that...  but I kinda doubt it because of base security.   Hope everyone is doing well.  I'll be updating more often now, hopefully with some crazy stories....

Bienvenidos

Hola! So I'm in Spain right now - I got here last night, and should be leaving later today for a really fun location. Always fun when the place you should have gone tells you to hold off because they are "under duress." Hopefully that just means that the runway was crowded.
Last night got to go into Sevilla for dinner. That was a crazy experience. From that I learned to A) Never drive in Europe. Just get a taxi. 2) The Spanish accent is very different than that of Argentina, or Mexico even. C) I really want to wander around Europe, without a gi-normous group slowing me down.
Anyways, I'm off to the chow hall. Hope life is good for everybody - I'm dismayed that I'm missing Lost tonight, but I'll live. I'd also encourage more people to add comments. Anyways, hope you're enjoying the blog.

2 long days so far

Still not out of the country - getting closer. I think I'm in Delware. Not totally sure, since I've never been in Delaware before, and because it's the middle of the night, but so I've been told. Spent the past 2 days up at Hill in Ogden, UT. Sunday was spent packing the plane until ~12 AM, in 20 degree weather. Lots of fun.
Happy Valentines Day - Hopefully Cupid will score me a date with his Mom when I get back.

Just in case...

Here's a pic of me on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2006. Hopefully everyone will here from me soon...

Adventure of the Day: Goblin Valley

So this morning T-Rav and I took off for the famed Goblin Valley. Some might think this is too far for a day trip. Those people are wrong. We left ~8AM, got to the valley about 10:30, and hiked around and played on the hoodoos (rock formations.) In classic RyRy and T-Rav style, we ended up about 2 ridges over and about 60 feet above the ground, trying to find a different way back.
After Goblin Valley, we decided to check out Little Wild Horse canyon, which was way cool. Very fun - wish we had had more time, but it was just a day trip. Made it back safe. From Provo to Goblin Valley is right about 2 1/2 hours, and a must-do.

Let's see if this works.

So, I've been trying to get my blog set up so I can email posts.  I'm not sure if this is going to work, and it will be my last try if it doesn't auto-post.  I'll just have to access blogger if it doesn't work.
I think I just about have everything that needs to be bought before my trip.  Now just to visit with friends and stuff.

Still trying to figure this out

So I'm still trying to figure this out. For some reason it puts my emailed posts into the archives, but not directly into the main blog. I'll work on it, perhaps consult with Tim.
I got word that I am definitely going to be traveling soon. 90 days, good pay. I'll be able to pay off my truck when I get back, and have some play money too. It's weird thinking I'll be gone for that long...

The beginning

This is the start of my blog. In it, I plan to write about the crazy stuff I do, and the interesting places I go. I also hope to use it to stay in touch with friends and family.
This is a picture I took back in August, hiking a nearby mountain, Mt. Timpanogos, in Utah County, UT.
I'm also starting this blog as an easy way to stay in contact with lots of people quickly while I travel the next few months. Hopefully it will work...