Ok, so things are getting crazy. I’ve got budget committee meetings, and selectman meetings, and Leadership North Country and everything else with five days left to go. I got my ballistic goggles today, and my vest and helmet should be here on Wednesday. I admit I feel I’ve fallen a bit behind on LPJ in the last day or so, but that’s because I’m trying to get my time in with my wife while still preparing for my trip.

I’ll be heading to FOB Kaslu, south of Baghdad, for the first week, to hook up with New Hampshire soldiers. I laid out plans with the news director at NHPR today for the type of stories I’ll be sending back. It’s a little crazy now, but once I’m on the bus to catch a plane to catch another plane to go to an embassy to catch another plane to get an ID badge and ride on a helicopter it will all be back to normal. Except I’ll be in Iraq.

What is a soldier’s day like? What is modern deployment like? Is it what they expected? What are they doing? I’m ready to just ask the most basic questions, because for so many people back home it’s just so unimaginable. Hopefully I can bring some of that back.

I’ll have more, lots more, as I get there and get into this. Right now, I’m still trying to keep up with the hill I started running down. So far so good.