Hey Gang,

I know it’s been a few days since I last posted a message.  Sometimes I get a bit of 
writers block and am not real sure what to write.  Life in the sandbox still carries on 
day by day.  We all are starting to feel the wear and tear.  I think it’s safe to say 
that we have successfully reached the half way point.  There are times when I tend to 
get stuck in a rut.  I’ll skip the gym one day and then one turns to two and so on.  The 
longer I stay away the more tired and cranky I seem to get and then finally I get the 
motivation to go again and after I work out I feel just wonderful.  It’s crazy like that.  
I have just finished my tenth book and the first season of “Once and Again”.  I have 
played hours upon hours of Scrabble and won, lost, and everything in between.  Ramadan 
is over now and things have calmed a bit.  Life here is still bearable.

Tonight on our mission I was the bus driver.  We have three buses that we use.  The first 
is the Pax bus and it is used for walking patients.  The second is the Litter bus and it 
is used for litter patients.  The third is the Mix Pax and it is used for a combination 
of both walking and litter patients.  The seats fold now and you can put litters on the 
seats.  The buses are just like school buses and are quite a load to drive especially 
when you are used to driving an inky dinky Subaru Forrester.  Plus the breaks are 
terrible.  It really takes practice and patience to stop the bus when you want to without 
slamming the bus to a complete stop.  It’s very important to stop as smooth as possible 
because you never now how critical of patients you might have on board.  For example, 
I drove the Mix Pax and it had some critical patients.  I drove 7mph all the way from 
the hospital to the flight line.  It took me like 20 minutes to get there.  Crazy huh?  
It’s just one of the jobs we all take turns doing to complete our mission.  

Anyways, I hope you are all doing well.  There is 44 shopping days until Christmas so I 
suggest you get a good start on it.  You know the longer you wait the more crowded the
malls and stores are.  Do some shopping for me.  

TTFN,

Dandy I wish I had a cold turkey sandwich with white wonder bread, miracle whip, and 
jellied cranberry sauce Aaron