OPERATION CHRISTMAS DROP

Since 1952, the Christmas Drop Organization has been spreading joy and much needed relief to residents in the most remote parts of the Marianas Island chain. (Guam is in the Marianas Island chain) For over half a century, this enduring legacy of success garnered by Operation Christmas Drop is a true testament to the generosity and goodwill of the citizens of Guam and it's military partners. With 2009 marking our 57th anniversary, we have set an aggressive goal to airdrop 200 boxes to more than 35,000 inhabitants spread out over dozens of smaller islands. This will mark an unprecedented milestone as Operation Christmas Drop charges ahead into the twenty-first century!

Through the cooperation of local and military communities in the Asia-Pacific region, Operation Christmas Drop has delivered over 800,000 pounds of much needed food, supplies, tools, and toys to thousands of residents throughout Micronesia. What started as a a lone WB-50 aircrew returning to Guam on its final flight before Christmas, has turned into the longest running humanitarian campaign not only in the history of the US Air Force, but of the entire world!

pilot wearing a Santa hat!

Christmas package for dropping

flight load crew getting ready to drop a package

goodies and shoot approaching the island

To help out with this year's Operation Christmas Drop, please go to Operation Christmas Drop's website.

***All photos and text above are from www.christmasdrop.com***

BRIAN IS HOME

Seven months and twenty-six days later, Brian returned from Afghanistan. We are thrilled to be in each other's company again and are enjoying some time off this week. Thanks to all of you for your support throughout this deployment!!!

Bbbbrrrr, New AC

So, our old crusty AC just couldn't cool the house, and I have been complaining for months. While I was back in the states, the housing maintenance people called and said they were going to replace it. I thought that this replacement was well overdue. When I got home from the trip, the same AC was sitting outside. Hhhmmm. I called the housing maintenance people, and they stated that they had had the wrong address.

Well, these circa 1952 concrete bungalows have an exterior closet that the ducts from the AC unit to the house pass through. They've had a problem with shrews/rats nesting in these duct closets, so they have been demolishing these closets and replacing the ducts with the type that are suitable to be exposed to the elements.

Here in Guam a couple of weeks ago, we were under a tropical storm warning with typhoon melor approaching. On a Friday afternoon, the housing maintenance people start demolishing this concrete closet attached to my house, and oh by the way tropical storm force winds were supposed to hit us around midday Saturday. When I came home from work on Friday, there were small pieces of concrete everywhere. I know that these pieces can fly and create damage in a high wind event (I did do hurricane research in college). In addition to the concrete mess, the ducts that were suitable for an interior environment were totally exposed to the elements, AND the ducts had been damaged during the closet demolition. Since the ducts were damaged, there were holes in a couple of spots and the seal where the ducts enter the house was broken. The air return duct is at slab level, meaning that it wasn't above the concrete outside. We were supposed to get a ton of rain, and I knew that water could get in the house if we got enough rain. I called the housing maintenance people and complained that they couldn't leave it like this with a typhoon approaching. They assured me that they would send someone right out.

The AC repair guy gets to my house and confidently states that "It is sealed up right tight. No water will get in your house ma'am, and this is perfectly fine for tropical storm conditions. We'll get it fixed up first thing next week" Whatever. Once again, these people are treating me like an idiot. I took everything out of the bottom of the linen closet (where the return duct is), and I put a bunch of towels down. First thing Saturday morning, I noticed sun coming into the linen closet from the duct area...sealed up right tight my a$$! (I know I don't usually use foul language on my blog, but I am now thirty: a full fledged adult. And, I felt like the situation warranted it.) Luckily, the typhoon turned north and we only got some small storms. No water got into the house, but I am sure plenty of water was in the exterior ducts. The housing maintenance people did not return to fix/finish the project until the following Friday. Classic.

a rusted out area of the duct

chunks of concrete between the ducts, oh yeah and a beautiful fern growing out of the duct

the interior style ducts exposed for a full week

more concrete

another hole in the exterior duct

Mold Mystery Solved

I have some catching up to do...

The housing maintenance people came out and removed the bottom 12 inches of my bedroom wall. The gypsum board was moist in places and generally smelled musty, indicating that it had been wet and dry several times. The indoor air quality guy left the concrete wall in our bedroom exposed and asked me to be on the look out for where water was coming in. The wall has a horizontal crack through it that runs the entire length of our bedroom. Last week, we finally had a hard rain and water was slowly seeping in through the crack. I'm sure that the gypsum board had been soaking up the water like a sponge for years. So, I called the maintenance people and told them that I thought they would need to seal the concrete from the outside before repairing the interior wall. The maintenance people on the other end of the phone said, "Ooookkaaaay ma'am" and that they would come take a look at it this week. Consistently, these people at the housing maintenance office treat me like a dumb blonde. I mean SERIOUSLY I am a registered engineer. That doesn't mean that I am genius on all building and construction topics, BUT I would argue that I probably know more than the average house wife! UUGGGHHH!

Since the saturated portion of the wall has been removed, my sinus issues have gotten significantly better.

Then, the air conditioner guys came out to replace the exterior AC ducts. While the guys were removing the old ducts, I took a look in them and the insulation was saturated. Yuck! They also left the ducts exposed for a week (during which we had the typhoon scare), but that story would be another blogs worth of ridiculousness. Anyway, the end result from the AC guys was that I got an entire new AC in addition to the new exterior ducts. Now, the AC can actually cool the house to the selected thermostat temp...I know what you are thinking: it is just too good to be true! I used to set the thermostat on 66, and it would keep the house between 72 and 76, depending on how sunny it was.

All in all, I am feeling much better!