Another Great Flood, This Time in Ninevah

It is currently POURING rain, and I fear I might be washed away inside my chu (compartmentalized housing unit, Brit. :)) Last night, I went to sleep to a rain shower. Being that I live in a metal box, I can sort of imagine it's a tin roof, and that's a nice thought to carry into sleep. Tonight, though, it's harder rain and I'm not 100% sure, but I think it has gotten into my wall. That should provide some fantastic odors once it heats back up a bit. The good thing about all this rain is that bad guys hate being out in it as much as we do, so it's rather quiet outside other than the rain.

Today we visited one of Saddam's old palaces in Mosul. It was probably very gorgeous once. Around 2003, the air force came around and said hello with a few thousand pounds of ordnance. The land (and crumbling palace) is now owned by the University of Mosul and they want to use it, but there's a slight problem...a slight 2,000 pound problem. One of the air force's "smart" bombs hit it's target, but failed to explode. According to the military lawyers, since it was dropped during war, we weren't responsible for clearing it. But since we've nothing better to do with a Saturday, we grabbed some structural engineers, a team of Explosive Ordnance Disposal guys(EOD - yes, like Hurt Locker), 1 shovel, 1 pick axe, and a screw driver to go look at it. Seriously. That's what they brought. For a 2,000 pound bomb. Clearly, it did not go off, because I am typing this now...but next time you're around a dictator's palace, make sure you bring a pick axe just in case you run across any UXO (unexploded ordnance).