VINCE

A curious thing happened last night while we were all sleeping. There was a large boom. That is all we have been able to come up with. An incredible, loud boom that woke up everybody in all three barracks.

From where I lay, I could not see a clock. And even if there was one in my view my glasses were stored for the night. I could tell right away that everybody else seemed spooked. None of the usual elements associated with a noise you can feel were present. No soft tapping of rain on the roof. No creaking of window frames from wind. No random bright flashes of light. And no fading echo of thunder.

We do know that somewhere nearby is some sort of military facility. On occasion I’ve seen those gigantic helicopters with the twin propellers flying by low, enough to get our attention. So that is possibly the source of last night’s disturbance. Nobody here knows what a sonic boom sounds like so here we sit confused. That’s the whole story, I hope somebody out there can tell me with certainty what happened out there.

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I have another favorite author. Bill Bryson has a way of reeling in my attention from page one. This week I picked up “In a Sunburned Country.” Cool. The first and only nonfiction book I had ever read prior to “A Short History of Nearly Everything” (my first Bryson experience) was six or seven years ago. Anthony Bourdain’s “Kitchen Confidential.”

I should say that I’ve read many books I suppose in school that would be nonfiction thus negating my last paragraph.

Anyhow. “In a Sunburned Country” is amazing for the first 77 pages I’ve been able to squeeze in since last evening with my busy schedule. It makes me want to travel, especially to Australia. I mean, who wouldn’t want to go there? If you’ve never read Bill Bryson, give him a shot.

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51 days to go. 131 already down.

Last night the four blue-hat squads had a marching test for a chance to perform in a parade on National Night Out on August 4^th. Well, the same people that didn’t want to help us out with pushups also didn’t care about marching. We didn’t do very well. Four months in and the same guys still have significant difficulty with left and right turns. They also happen to be the only guys in our squad that are here on pistol-related charges and/or don’t have drug problems. They have one more thing in common but it would be rude to mention it.