Candace's Photography Blog Has Moved... The Banks Bunch blog is still here....

I have decided that it would be best to move my photography blog to a new site...I will continue to post family updates at this blog.

Please visit my photography site at:

http://candacejbanks.blogspot.com

Blessings,
Candace

Sunday, August 26, 2007

New post from Kelly in Qatar...

Not Much Has Changed
Nothing new to report. I'm getting more familiar with my new job. I'm getting to know all the new people that I'm here with, since we spend most of our time together. I think I'm getting used to the heat and humidity, if that's possible. And I've developed a pretty set routine for my days and weeks. So that's what I'll tell you about today.
A day in the life of me:
2200-alarm goes off to wake me up, sometimes I'm already awake
get up, put on PT uniform and head to Cadillac (bathroom) to shave and brush teeth (this requires walking about 100 yards to a separate building)
2230-back at my room, get dressed in DCU's (desert camo uniform), say prayers, make bed, straighten up a little, make sure I have everything I need to take with me to work
2250-leave my room and head for the the chow hall (cafeteria). Get a bite to eat (breakfast foods like eggs or pancakes or left overs from dinner) and a cup of coffee.
2315-get on the bus and ride about 10 minutes to the other side of the base to work.
2330-get to work, get turn over from the off going shift, start 12 hour shift
Now here's where it can vary quite a bit. I'm not going to lie, it's not all work and no play. Some days are but most days are not. We may be busy or we may have nothing at all to do for 12 hours. In that case we help out the other sections where we can. We play cards or dominoes, watch movies.
We spend a lot of time launching and recovering airplanes. I won't go into too much detail about times or procedures. There is some inspection and preventive maintenance that we do on the engines. And of coarse if one fails to operate as intended or at all, we fix it if we can or replace it with another one.
0500-the chow hall on the other side of the base opens. We try to get a hot meal, but are not always successful, depending on work load. If we do get to eat it's breakfast, so more eggs (I'm so tired of eggs). If not we get box lunches which are sandwiches, chips, snacks. They're OK.
Back to the flight line. Finish up whatever work we are doing or helping with. Maybe wash the truck, fill the coolers with Gatorade, water and ice, clean the building. Depends on the day.
1130-the next shift starts showing up. Time to inventory tools, and get ready to turn over any unfinished work.
1200-get on the bus and go back to my room
1215-change from DCU to PT uniform
1230-work out at the gym. I usually do a little weights and then cardio.
1315-back to the room, grab stuff to take a shower and head for the Cadillac to shower and change clothes (clean PT uniform)
1400-back to the room. Bag up dirty laundry, take it to the laundry drop off. Pick up clean laundry next door to dirty laundry drop off. (The laundry is done by an off base contractor
and they are pretty efficient, no complaints)
1430-maybe go to the chow hall for dinner (depends on if I got to eat lunch and how tired I am and what they are having)
1500-log on to my personal computer in my room, which is finally set up and running thanks to Drew. I use mt camera to make a quick 10-20 second video of myself saying hello and
talking to Candace and the boys, then send it to them in an email.
1530-get ready for bed. Read bible, say prayers, maybe watch a little TV. Before I know it it's time to do it all again.
*The times in this post are in military time so as to confuse civilian readers
**All times and schedules are subject to change without notice or refund

7 comments:

G'ampa C said...

Good to hear something from across the ocean. I'm sure it's clumsy trying to post through a blog in Abilene, but I'm glad you guys are willing to do this.
Kelly- we miss you and are praying for you and your safety.
Candace, Brendan, Corbin- We're so glad you guys didn't get flooded out. We miss you all, too, and are praying for you all. God's blessings on the Banks family. Love you all,
Calvin

The Fletchers said...

So cool to hear from you, Kelly! Miss you, bro....keep up the good work.

your brother,

lee

Anonymous said...

Sounds not too bad except for all the eggs. And man, that Drew gets around, doesn't he? We're all good here. Kids started school today. Seth's first day of HS and Leah's first day of MS. Can't believe it!! Oil field is pumping and that's good for Monty's work. We miss you and think of you a LOT. Life team sends you a big hug, Kelly.

Love,
Frankie

summer said...

Kelly,
We sent you a little something (not eggs!) so hopefully you'll get it soon. We love and miss you.

Fuquas

G'ampa C said...

Hmmm...
Would you like them here or there?
Would you like them in a house?
Would you like them with a mouse?
Would you eat them in a box?
Would you eat them with a fox?
Would you, could you, in a car?
Eat them, eat them! Here they are!
You may like them, you will see.
You may like them in a tree.
A train! A train! A Train! A train!
Could you, would you, on a train?
Say! In the dark? Here, in the dark? Would you, could you, in the dark?
Would you, could you, in the rain?
Could you, would you, with a goat?
Would you, could you, on a boat?
You do not like them. So you say.
Try them, try them, and you may!
Try them and you may, I say!

Anonymous said...

Hmm. . . something tells me that Calvin just wrote that from memory. . .

summer said...

Candace, where are you? Thinking about you and hoping you're all doing well.