And so it begins...

Today marked the beginning of my expense-paid vacation in Southwest Asia...or at least, the first part of it.

I'm currently sitting at Fort Bliss, Texas, just outside El Paso, after flying out from Fayetteville. I should be here about two weeks before I actually depart the US.

Long day. This is the first time I'll have been away from the wife and kids for a long while (i.e., more than just a month or so - I was driving home on long weekends when I was at CBKS).

I don't think it's hit the kids yet. Household6, on the other hand, is fully cognizant of what is going on. Combined with the fact that I have no Batphone here (thanks to Verizon and their crappy-ass corporate policies), the fact that I have internet access here is one hell of a blessing. The unit here set up a 802.11b hot spot and have Ethernet cables.

This underscores just how thankful I was that I was able to score my new laptop. In the running tradition of my new laptop being the fastest thing I have, it's been named Phlegethon...after the river of boiling blood. (This is what I get for reading Inferno during scout gunnery when I was a junior first lieutenant in an armored cavalry squadron, long, long ago.) I held off going Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for a long while, but now, it was just inevitable. So much for being a technical Luddite while still claiming conversancy in the dark arts of computing.

For the benefit of all my Basic Strategic Art Program classmates who might be reading this, yes, this means I'm still getting my geek on. At least while I'm still in the US.