Mindless Musings — Volume II, Issue V (Ignorance is Bliss — Day 4)

March 22, 2020

“Ignorance is Bliss” is a series detailing conditions and developments from inside an isolation site at Fort Bliss, Texas, housing US Soldiers returning from overseas deployments.

I apologize in advance, guys — I’m running out of material, and every day is exactly the same. Nobody got in a fight today, nobody broke any bones, I didn’t see anybody doing lines of blow in the parking lot (though, to be fair, we don’t have a parking lot…) Nothing of interest, but I’ll do my best to grind this out for you.

Today started with more contractor-cooked Army rations. Today’s ration consisted of powdered eggs, French toast, fake garbage turkey bacon, and grits. I had a single slice of French toast, with a packet of syrup. It was fine, as far as mass-cooked institutional French toast goes. Lunch was a “meatballs in marinara” MRE, of which I ate a cookie and some bread. Those entrees are calorically dense, and I’m dense enough already; I don’t need that many calories.

We had Thanksgiving dinner! Turkey cutlet, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and individually packaged apple pie slices. I took advantage of the cat food turkey, cranberry sauce, and pie, and left the rest. I’m not above eating anything; my caloric needs right now just aren’t enough to justify shoveling spoonfuls of crumbled bread into my face. (Yeah, I still ate the pie. Shut up.)

Adhering to the principle of constantly improving one’s fighting position, we acquired a coffee pot and two big cans of Folgers for our building. The improved caffeine supply has been a major morale booster, and also saved me a lot of work. I’m still rocking the AeroPress, because I appreciate the finer things in life am schlepped the damn thing halfway around the world.

Today’s workout was a 2.5 mile run and 110 pushups (not all in one set). We’re all doing the best we can to keep fit with what we’ve got available here; sandbags, water cans, ammo cans, tires. rucksacks, each other…whatever it takes. CPT Gray, our Physician Assistant, hosted a yoga class for about a half dozen of us. It was nice getting a good stretch and getting my zen on. I also took the opportunity to assault everyone with my achromatic flesh, sunbathing and meditating for about 20 minutes. (Don’t worry, mom, I wore sunscreen. And a helmet.)

As I’ve said, this definitely isn’t a vacation, but we’re not working hard, either. I would definitely count it as “down time,” and I’ll be ready to get back to work when my sentence quarantine is over. I have had plenty of time to work on the mandatory training tasks leading into my next deployment — several hours of YouTube videos on such fascinating topics as nutrition, military justice, and the Law of Armed Conflict, to name a few.

I just learned that Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, back home, has just gone to Health Protection Condition (HPCON) Charlie; one step below the highest tier. As of now, that doesn’t affect when we go home, but we’ll see how that unfolds. (Here’s a primer on what the different HPCON levels mean).

I’m off to bed, because one of the best things I can do to keep from getting the virus is maintain a healthy immune system. Also because I’m tired.

Please feel free to leave any questions in the comments section. I’m seriously running out of material here, so if nobody asks questions, I’m going to turn this into a historical fiction zombie story. (Does it count as “historical” if it happened earlier today?) Also, I just added a “subscribe” button — enter your email address at the top right of any page, and never miss an update!

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