Flat Tire Fiasco

647am woke up. My day was already full since I had plenty of calls yesterday while I was in bed. I knew today had to be dealt with early.

703am went to my truck to get out my gear... my truck was going to be used by someone else since i'm sick. a pink note was flapping on my windshield...

FLAT TIRE REAR D/S

my sick day was getting worse.
735am dressed, drove to mechanic and dropped off my vehicle.

747am "i have a flat, i'll be back at 8" I headed to breakfast to wait for the garage to open at 8.

804 back from breakfast, in the

garage manager's office

W: i have a flat tire

Mechanic: do you have a cranklift?

W: um, kinda.

Mechanic: well you might want to get on changing that now won't you?

W: no, my lift won't lift or hold my up-armored vehicle. Plus the spare is broken.

Mechanic: (laughing) alright mate, bring it into the mid bay.

(i think i would have shot him if that joke had continued much longer, I also mentioned to him that I had mission at 10am. OK mission was at 1045, but I wasn't going to push it)

812: two guys are taking off the flat. I decide I will include the "flat fix" part of my day in my blog... why not, it could be interesting.

815am: three guys are trying to lift my truck take off the spare and the flat.

820am: four guys are trying to take off the spare

835am: five guys are standing around as my spare still will not come off.

Garage Mgr: "this 
is what you meant when you said broken, mate?"

I knew 6 weeks ago the spare wouldn't come off. THESE SAME MECHANICS TOLD ME IT WAS BROKEN WHEN THEY INSPECTED THE TRUCK.

W: "yep"

847am: Five guys are working on getting the spare off, three guys are watching.

Their workmanship reminds me of 6 years old playing soccer... one kicks the ball and all the boys run after the ball regardless of the direction or purpose. Every time the ball moves so does the cluster of 6 year olds. Magnet ball. Magnet Mechanics.

915am: Full size spare comes off. filthy. Well I guess filthy was to be expected. It has scraped every speed bump in Kabul for the last 7 weeks... I told them it probably needed to be washed and checked before put on. I figured every speed bump and hole in Kabul had taken a pretty hard toll on it, and i didn't expect it to hold air.

918am: spare washed and rolled back... bad plug is found in the spare. its not holding air.

920am: PLAN B: Original flat is put on a machine in order to successfully plug it from the inside.

930am: Original flat is plugged. The plug is checked... it isn't holding air. the hole is too big for the plug. FML.

937am: Spare is put on the machine to try and de-plug then re-plug its hole. The Manager asks one mechanic to check the warehouse for another tire same size as mine. He mentions to me that is is a very RARE and atypical size. ...of course its rare and atypical... because my day couldn't get any better... not to mention it is a RUN FLAT. (RUN FLATs are equipped to allow the tire to support the vehicle even after a puncture, they're very expensive and make changing out a tire more difficult)

939am: guys are standing around... I ask the head mechanic what is going on with the tires. "Everything is good ma'am, we have two tires exactly the right size. 2 are coming ma'am".

WOW! wonderful! AMAZING! KBR pulls through!

945am: The manager offers to show me two recently attacked vehicles while we wait for the 2 good tires to be put on. Rocks were thrown at the trucks, windows impaired but no injuries or major damage. mostly annoying and keeps people on their toes.

950am A mechanic tells me they don't have any of my tires... none are coming. they have to replace all 4 tires. I'm stunned. the Manager comes over and confirms, "it will be a long job"

W: "I need to be out by 10am"

Manager: "not possible"

W: " 1015?"

Manager: " it will take about 2 hours"

W: (blank exasperated expression)

Phone calls start. I'm sweating.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Finally an answer and possible help.

1008 Manager comes and relooks at the original flat. decides to replug it with a bigger plug, possibly a patch over a plug.

"i guess this is PLAN C, mate"

you think of this NOW?! how about a bigger plug QUICKLY!

MA calls me back. she couldn't answer since she was in a meeting... "no worries, we have a different truck as you are on sickhall today." W: "really? you don't need the truck...oh well...ok!"

OMG. Seriously.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

1020am: hand over my keys to the manager and leave my cell number. he offers me a ride

back. "no thanks i'll walk"

1036am: walking back... throughout the morning my body neglected to acknowledge the fact that i'm sick. it was great to be able to deal with the current situation without my stomach killing me. well. now thats over... time for the sickness. OUCH.

its even pretty stationary...so kind of them.

Thursday...maybe. Mission

Mornings typically start out with around the office and such... LTC Albanese is my part father figure, part guidance counselor and all gargoyle. He mentors and protects and of course has the joke and task for me more often than not... we chatted about your blog, he showed pics of his wife's trip to NY
and we discussed if the boss was in a good mood or not.

Since I have mission I always get things set up and ready for the trip. Hey you, this is me. Radio check, over. Driving isn't usually stressful, always interesting conversations going on in the background and passengers are always interested in their surroundings. Since I'm the only female driver i have to hold my own. The radion dispatcher is a French Sergeant.

he sends out the occasional joke but the heavy accent drowns out any possible comprehension.

ok I was caught off guard and do not feel this picture is a good representation of how cool I look...

so anyhow... my boss is the one and only boss with 2 females in his immediate staff... yes we are quite amazing and we are the talk of Afghanistan. Any time the MA and I are in the vehicle driving without him or other men he gives us the stern "make sure you look like men when you are driving together! I don't want people to know 2 women are in the vehicle alone together!". Everywhere he goes he has one or both of us with him. Lucky guy right :)

Once we reached our destination the Generals went off to their meeting and we went for coffee a reward we enjoy as frequently as possible, this is the best coffee in Afghanistan and the outdoor seating has a great view of the offices and street below. it was PERFECT weather! In addition to my required military gear I have added to my stash, 1) Nikon D90, 1) MacBookPro, 1) iPod touch and as many books, decks of cards, movies and pens as I can find. Coffee isn't always available and the long hours sitting around in a truck melt my brain.

since most meetings are at our location or this one we always run into people. This is Pierre the GERMAN! yeah. he's German and his name is Pierre. Poor guy.

not the most exciting day but its always good to get out on mission and out of the office.

Wednesday, or maybe it was Thursday.

1. woke up around 730...threw on clothes and headed to chow. Chow sucks here. I thought it was internationally known that brits have bad food. Our Chow contract is through KBR UK. Bad idea to begin with and it hasn't gotten any better.

2. Ate at my desk while I checked over the days events and driving missions... the General's MA (Military Assistant) and I chat about the boss' schedule and coordinating missions.

3. my day was busy I have to re-do our office's web page, basically find someone to show me how or do it themselves. The IT guys are always fun so i chatted with them about the issue and hung out for a bit.

4. MA and i decided since the boss was off at a meeting and we didn't have to go we would tackle the days problems over coffee. off we went... passing UK Army trucks on the way...

5. The General told me that his finances and Army pay didn't look right and asked me to check into it... its too hot outside to walk all around post. so i drove. SC National Guard is in charge of the US troops....well they solve all the US issues and do our paperwork.

6. About lunch time Jeremiah called and was hungry... so lunch at the Thai restaurant it was... I'm in Afghanistan I promise but we have this great little Thai restaurant :) we get the same thing every time. i'm not even sure what the name is, they see us and know to bring the usual.

7. Then I wanted to go carpet shopping... i looked at Kilim designs; its a closed knot weave and more durable, usually out of Herat, Western Afghanistan. Jeremiah didn't last very long in the rug store and i'm just getting ideas and window shopping so on we went...

8. the rest of my day was a tummy ache blur. I did more work... coordinated for an upcoming meeting and tackled the office restructuring :)