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All posts for the month February, 2013

As I Return Tonight

Posted by wcrowlandksr on February 25, 2013
Posted in: Life In The Sandbox. Leave a comment

Its been a while since I posted anything here as the firewall gods decided that my site was bad juju. While that’s pure crap…I must adapt.
This may be my last post for a while as tonight my middle east adventure in the sandbox has come to a close. I want to thank my readers and I hope that my stories in general and thoughts on debt freedom have been inspiring to you. I hope that my adventure has been of interest and I hope that if you decide to take on your own adventure, you might consider your own blog so that one day you can look back and remember what it was that you did and why and be able to see just how far you have come.

These last few days have been spent remembering my life back home and making efforts to mentaly prepare to return. I know it won’t be the same but neither will I. This last year has surely changed me. I know I haven’t figured out where all the changes are in my view on life but they are sure to appear when I get home. I have found that I miss a truly great sounding stereo. I have only had the option of good headphones and today I am again listening to some tunes through them. They block the daily noise here that I am looking forward to escaping from. If it’s a running generator, a helicopter, the HAVC system or today’s rush of the jet engines as I begin the long journey home. There’s always some kind of racket going here. I am really in need of some deep quiet. I am looking forward to that.

After I get back, it’s not known what I will do for a living but as the days here have rolled by, I have started thinking what it might be like to change career fields. It’s actually refreshing to think of it but I believe that the feeling comes from just wanting to be free of this particular work environment. I think that before I go jumping ship careerwise, I will just take some time out and relax and see where things go from there.

Before I came here, I never had any real interest in coming to Kuwait. Tonight I feel a sense of relief but at the same time, a sense of remorse as I leave a great paying job in a place where the sun seems to always shine and there are few if any clouds. I have made a few friends and I hope that I can stay in touch with them. We always say that we will stay in touch but the day to day activities will probably get in the way. It’s just a facet of the way life is on this big round rock. Maybe I will be wrong this time….

The rush of acceleration comes with the roar of the jet engines and the outside view becomes a blur. I relax into my seat and feel the power and think back to my new friends left behind, knowing I will miss them. The static pictures I have taken of them in my mind flash by in the same way a great movie ends and the credits begin to roll by and you think to yourself…is it really over? Can this be the end? What happens next, will there be a sequel?…Just then, the wheels leave the ground and they fold up under the jet and I am jolted back to my present adventure as I leave the theater. I am going back home to start a new life where I left the old one behind a year ago.
As the plane touches down and I finally get to the door and step outside, just like when you walk out of the theater, the bright light blinds you a little and it is then that I realize that the next adventure is about to begin.

Warm weather, sand and palm trees.

Posted by wcrowlandksr on February 7, 2013
Posted in: General Ramblings, Life In The Sandbox. Leave a comment

Been here for a year and the nice weather never gets old.  I’m sitting outside at a New York based burger joint in the middle east. The outdoor dining is warmed by a few patio heaters but they are more for ambiance than really needing them.
A pair of quads just scooted by in front of the place as it is on a the main road bordering the Arabian gulf.  The police are nowhere in sight and they don’t seem to care about such things anyway.  Back home, you would expect a full on police chase of those quads.  An example of the carefree life here when compared to the United Nanny States of America.

The smell of oud is in the air.  Its pleasant fragrance is something that before I lived here, I never knew.  I will miss it when I leave.

Kuwait is a wealthy country with the black gold in the ground and a world wide demand for it, it appears that as long as it flows, they will prosper.  You can’t blame then for selling it rather than giving it away.  We tend to want to maximize the products we produce in the U.S. In much the same way. 

It is the luck of the draw in life and the middle east has hit it big.  So I figure if you can enjoy a little of the result of the wealth, why not.  It is part of why I am here. 

Back home I keep hearing of cold wet rainy days and I am trying to figure out where the draw, at least weather wise is to go back.  The 3 week summers are beautiful there but the length of summerlike weather is a joke.

Meanwhile, the quads go buzzing by again and shake me from the contemplation of a colder time in the northwest.  I’m in the middle east!  Its warm, the food is good and I’m happy today.  I live in a shared apartment and sleep on a tiny bed in a cramped room…but I sleep well and life is good.  I find that sometimes these times serve to remind us of what is important. 

I am one who needs to regroup quietly and plan a little.  Tonight its night 29 in a countdown before I go home.  In many ways I don’t want to but I know that for now it is time.  I will never look at life the same after having lived here and I think I may want to take on another job that will allow for another experience like this one. 

With bills paid, bags packed and a new outlook on life, I bid you fairwell Kuwait and as strange as it may sound, I welcome another opportunity to return if you should see fit.