"Play Ball"

Spring training has started at Tallil.

The softball season is starting up and since it will be 130 degrees in the shade during the daytime in a few months, most of the games are at night under the lights. Went for a walk this evening out around the running track and a soldier was walking around to each of the one dozen generator light sets around this field to light it up. In addition to these facilities, there are indoor and outdoor basketball courts, a world class gym, and an indoor size soccer field that looks like a little hockey rink without the ice. Our office has two trailers out back with a tread mill and some free weights if we can't make it to the gym. Unfortunately, the gym is at least a 20 minute walk from here, and if we can't get a car... it's not the extra exercise, it's the time, we just don't get a lot of daylight hours to work out. Four days a week, we are given an hour to work out and most of us take advantage of that. Otherwise, the mess hall food takes a heavy toll.

Three Pied Kingfishers played, hovered and sang over the running track pond this evening. The first I've seen on base in two months. I was thrilled to see so many of them yesterday in the car, but it's much better to hear them overhead. They put out quite a racket when they fly, and at home I hear them long before they fly by.