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In my last post, on Christmas Eve, I mentioned that this site might go dark for a few days while I worked off the damage done by copious amounts of Jack Daniels consumed in a Dubai hotel room. Well, obviously it's been a little longer than "a few days."

While I did positively pickle myself that evening, the real reason for my lapse in blogging was that I spent two very pleasant weeks in London trying not to think about Afghanistan and this job. Not entirely successful in that, but still it was nice to get away. However, now I'm back in the Rockpile, so I guess it's time to go back to work.

About ten minutes ago, I received a nice welcome home from the bad guys, delivered as usual with a very loud boom. Loud enough to rattle the windows and send me out to the balcony to see what's going on.*

*Yes I know, when things blow up, the preferred response is NOT to go outside, but I'd rather know what's going on then sit here in ignorance. If the bad guys are up to no good, I want to know where they are and what they are doing.

Apparently, a rocket struck the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood of Kabul, which is the swanky* bit of town where the big foreign companies and NGOs have their fancy villas. Not my neighborhood, but when you're talking 122mm rockets a few streets over is still too close.

*"Swanky" of course being a relative term. They still don't have paved roads and the primary means of trash collection is by hungry goat, but the villas are nice.

And just now, the power went out, which means either A) the bad guys are being mischievious little bastards and messing with people, or B) someone in the Ministry of Energy forgot that they occasionally need to perform routine maintenance. Even with the explosion, my bet is still the latter.

So, I could go downstairs and start the generator, but I think I'll just sit here in the dark and tend the fire in my bokhari.*

*Dari for "wood burning stove," the heating as opposed to the cooking kind. Only source of heat I have during this winter. I've conclusively proven that almost anything will burn if you pour enough diesel fuel on it.

Now if I could just find where I put that bottle of Jack Daniels. I'm pretty sure there were a couple of shots left.