OUCH!!!

this week has been rough...  i have had some issues with my arms the last couple weeks which needed to get looked at by the doctor.  i have tendonitis in both elbows.  that is not fun but at least i know what i need to do to treat it to keep it from coming back...  my biggest frustration with it is the fact that i had been making some great gains at the gym.  i have cut lots of the body fat to near single digits and gaining weight in all the right places a guy should.  now i need to take a month off at least to let it heal and do some recovery work.  i was given a sling and a strap that wraps tightly around the forearm to restrict the muscles from swelling.  it helped until i got to wrestling or defending myself against the work horses on my team.  still the top dog just have to take a break for a bit.  so hopefully we get a speedy recovery so i can get back to the gym and finish the work i started there.

cengiz... going away barbeque... turkish style

well, its almost here... cengiz is going home to his wife and the daughter that is on the way.  he is excited to say the least.  why wouldn't he be.  he has been working here for 5 years now and has spent the last 2 years working with GDIT.  he is a great asset and will be missed... as much as i wish he would be coming back, i can't blame him for wanting to be at home.  he has every reason in the world to want to be there.  a wife and a new baby on the way.  he is definitely going to be missed by all of us here.  i feel like him and i have gotten to be pretty close in the short amount of time that we have been working together.  hopefully we will be able to break the language barrier and keep in touch.  he is a great friend.  the pictures are from his going away party we had.  turkish food is awesome... what else can i say.  fresh veggies and barbequed lamb and chicken and some beef.  what a feast.  enjoy, i know i did.

is it dumb to post so many blogs about sand storms...?

so i know i put up a lot of posts about the sand storms... but that is as exciting as it has been lately.  this last one was probably the worst yet... right after the magnificent thunder and lightning display and the wall of sand moving in... we had two days of solid sand... so dense that you could only see five feet in front of you at times...  it truly is amazing and i wish this on no one!  still, enjoy the pics as that is all that seems to upload at this point for me...  while you look at it think of the song, desert rose by sting and that one guy... he is middle eastern so it sounds familiar to me now.

saturdays sandstorm...

well, i wanted to share as much of the experience as i could without losing my mind.  i got some video this time too so it should give you a good idea as to what the sandstorms look like.  today's was intense because we had some serious lightning with it that i could never catch but some of the thunder can be heard.  hopefully this works so you can see what i'm talking about.  that movie hidalgo really portrays it well.  enjoy.

so the video did not load right and for now i can't get it to load... hope the pictures will do for now...

a thing or two i learned about dates...

my good friend cengiz from turkey has been working with us for a bit now.  he lets me drive the back hoe and do some excavating which i love to do.  so today we were working near abrahams oasis again.  after we got done with our trenching, he wanted to get some dates.  they grow on palm trees.  that was the first thing i learned about dates.  second thing i learned was that they are harvested by two crazy people with a back hoe.  cengiz wanted me to drive while he got up there and cut the bunch down.  so i put him in the bucket of the back hoe and lifted him way up in the tree.  it was really funny.  then after cutting down two bunches, if thats even what they call them, we loaded up and took off for the shop.  that is when i found out that we aren't supposed to be picking them.  at least thats what some of the guys were saying but i think they like to look for drama.  maybe thats what adam felt like partaking of the forbidden fruit.  i do have to wonder if it made his tummy upset like it did mine.  i ate way to many and some where a bit green.  they were so good though.  so that is what i know about dates and how they get harvested.  

CO-WORKERS...

THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO LIKE TO GIVE ME A HARD TIME... SOME OF THEM ARE THE GUYS I WORK WITH.  A COUPLE IN PARTICULAR WHO I HAVE KNOW NOW FOR A WHILE.  I GUESS I HAVE TO TAKE IT CUZ IF THEY DIDN'T TEASE ME, I WOULD HAVE TO WORRY THEY REALLY WERE MAD.  SO "J" AND "TONY" THIS ONE IS FOR YOU TWO.  THEY SEEM TO BE THE ONLY WAY TO KEEP A LEVEL OF SANITY IN SUCH A CHAOTIC ENVIRONMENT.  SO THANKS BOYZ.

a little tired of the sand...

so today was an amazing demonstration once again of how much sand can irritate the heck out of me.  all night long we had sand blowing and blowing.  this morning you almost wished it would blow just a little harder so that they would call work off.  we work outside so its no fun when the wind kicks up and brings in a literal wall hundreds of feet high that just engulfs you.  visibility is limited.  you can't see to far past the end of your nose.  it wasn't quite as bad as some i've seen but still its been a while since the last good one.  although it was still aggravating my eyes and sinus'.  i finished the day looking like i had come from the bakery where they make the dough.  flour all over only it was sand.  in my ears, nose and eyes.  a very unpleasant thing.  still makes me look at it in awe.  once i got home, i showered and cleaned up and walked out in to round two as it began settling in around us.  the wind kicked up and almost felt like a vacuum sucking the air out.  then the wall of sand coming.  amazing to watch it mop up the terrain and make it disappear.  so there is yet another sand storm i have had the horrible privilege to be a part of.

even though these are some pictures from another sand storm they give you an idea of what its like.

jake bryan- established 1976

so this is my blog.  i am creating this in hopes to share some of my experiences with the people i love and care about.  i have been fortunate to have many memorable experiences from around the world.  maybe this way i can share some of the day to day things that happen to me.  

this will just be a brief overview of what has happened to me in the first 32 years of life for this guy.  i was born in october of 1976.  i'm coming up on my 32nd birthday which will be yet another one spent alone and far from home.  i have the best parents in the world.  stewart and susan bryan.  i have every reason to be a happy person with the child hood i had.  i have always know who i am and best of all that i was loved.  i have one older brother joe, a younger sister holly, and two younger brothers jon and josh.  i couldn't be prouder of the people they are and the source of strength they are to me.  we share a closeness that is stronger than most people understand.  our family is close and we do so many things together.  it can be overwhelming at times to people who aren't used to it.  but i wouldn't change it for the world.  

i have a certain side of me that can only be satisfied by an extreme sense of excitement.  i love the water.  i love motorcycles and big trucks.  i have been broken and beaten down some in many of my thrill seeking adventures.  i am lucky to be alive.  my family has had more than one trip to the emergency room to check on me.  from wrecking a dirt bike on the sand dunes and breaking my collar bone to diving off the funny farm bridge and splitting my head open.  that one is my closest run in with the next life i believe.  i tend to put stress on my family in that respect.  they do question my choices sometimes but they love me through it all.

i have some amazing sisters-in-law.  they have made joe and jon so happy.  they have given our family additions to the super people already in it.  along with sarah and ruth, they have brought us jared, rachel, brock and jefferey.  those kids are what makes life so precious.

i have had many jobs and am currently in iraq working for the military.  i spent two years in afghanistan as a contractor and have since gone through some difficult times.  i got divorced in the early part of this year.  i have had some severe blows that have tested me and pushed me to my limits.  thanks to the love of my family i have found the ability to move on.  take each day as it comes and move forward.  everything happens for a reason.  lessons are learned and experience points gained.  i don't regret the mistakes i've made because they have made me who i am today and only strengthened my belief in god and family and that we are here to learn and make our mistakes to grow and learn from.  i know who i am and where i want to go.  this will be an eternal process.  a work in progress so to say.

enjoy the updates as they come and i hope you will find happiness with me as we travel this road together.  my prayers go out to all of you and wish you all the best, all the success you work for and all the happiness you deserve.  

jake