Welcome to Welch Super Service, a blog about a guy making a huge change in his life. The blog’s title comes from a sign that has been atop the Welch Super Service gas and grocery, at the heart of my soon-to-be home, Welch, Alabama. The sign one of those vintage Coca-Cola ones, has been up since I was a kid. Imagine what “super service” was back in the 1950s. The sign, the store, and the community, continue to welcome customers driving up and down US 431 in east central Alabama. If you ever find yourself in the area, stop in for a cold “drank.”
In about two weeks, I will depart Iraq after a two-year stint with the US State Department. My plan is to relocate onto a piece of ground in Alabama – the place I was born. I have not lived there since I was in high school, a very long time ago. In anticipation of the change in addresses, I bought a truck and an Airstream travel trailer. Figured with the two, I had solved most of my transportation and housing needs. There are a couple of things I need to do before I actually move in. I have to drill a well, install a septic system, get a driveway constructed, and obtain electricity and propane gas. In addition, I want to pour a cement slab for the Airstream and build a cover over it. My idea is that I will eventually enclose the Airstream parking spot and make it into a general use room, what the Iraqis would call a diwan (a sheikh’s room). And, at some point, I intend to build a modest cabin on the property. When all of that happens, the Airstream will be up for sale. Early bids are welcomed.
At this moment, in this very first post, I am in Iraq, Basra to be specific. My job is that of a governance advisor. My actual specialty is city management but Iraqis have a different way of looking at the management of their cities than Americans. All that ends in a few days and I will be back home, Sweet Home Alabama, hoping that I can survive it.
i wish you had been doing this all along- would have been a better travelogue of your adventures in iraq than the e-correspondence journal i've been keeping.
ReplyDeletegood thing there are more adventures to come, dr simpson, so please keep up with this so i can keep up with you, you crazy wanderdog you.
...welch super-service-- isnt that the last place to buy beer before you enter dry county? appropo.
Tomas:
ReplyDeleteHere in the South, you have missed the floods and the temperature is picking up so that by late this week the combination of heat and humidity will surely bring back fond memories of your youth. Let us know when you arrive and we may come over and "hep" you with that "drank". As always be safe and as my old buddy Wade used to say when advising me on my golf swing, "keep your @#&*#*@ head down!"
Sam