Day 89

Originally uploaded by macktruckturner

Today was fairly cool, with a little lightning, and a short drizzle. I could live with that on a daily basis if I had to. In fact, I’d rather deal with high winds, lightning, and muddy floors than high winds, sweltering heat, and a fine coat of dust on everything. The summer in Iraq can get pretty crazy. Random rainstorms out of nowhere, causing a high of 90 or so, followed the next day by a light breeze of 110 degree air.

Today finally gave me enough time to sit down and change the strings on my guitar, which of course also required that I jam for at least an hour. A friend of mine came by, and we rocked out for a while. Quite a few people I know would call him insane for bringing a Martin to Iraq. Everyone that knows me, also knows that I have no problem spending over a grand on a piece of equipment, and then using it wherever I happen to end up. Take my custom 1911 for instance. Is it mechanically any different than my Colt? Nah, not really. It does however carry a price tag 5x the size. Some are shocked that I would even consider putting a $2000+ pistol in a holster and subjecting it to the wear and tear of regular carry. My question is, why the heck would I spend that kind of money on a stone cold reliable precision tool – and not use it? I take the same approach to guitars, so understand my friend bringing his Martin to Iraq. It’s a guitar, it was meant to be played. It can’t be played if it is nowhere near its owner. If I had the space, I would have brought my Strat out here, along with my favorite (and smallest) amp. My inexpensive, but tonally pleasing, Alvarez RD20S will have to hold me over. Something tells me it’ll put up with this deployment just as well as it did the last.