It was amazing how quickly one could adapt to the desert heat. Of course, I like the heat and prefer the summer months, and I’ve already stated how it sometimes felt stifling hot, even to me. But it was possible to get the air conditioners cranked up pretty high, and even to forget (for a while) that you were in a desert.

Once we’d had a long period of little or no activity. Tower guard, boring things like that. I was able to watch some DVDs on my computer –the “Farscape” box set, I believe it was– and the air conditioner in the trailer was set pretty high. It was towards the end of the summer months, and while the days were still burning hot, the nights cooled more rapidly than usual. Wrapped up in my show, I had not realized that the sun had long since set, it was dark, and “cold” for the area, and the air conditioner was still blasting like it was noonday heat outside. I felt an unusual sensation, something that seemed familiar but troubling. I wondered if I was getting sick, and I realized… my teeth were chattering.

I turned off the A/C and wrapped in a blanket for awhile until the temperature evened out. I was wrapped up in a blanket, in Iraq, feeling cold. Damn.