Walking through the leaves, falling from the trees (not so much)

In less than nineteen ours, I will begin my final complete month in Iraq. Too bad it has to be one of the ones with thirty-one days!
Anyway, so sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been recruited, along with another guy, to create a new database and cargo tracking system for two yards, three transportation battalions and the brigade trans ops. Luckily, we can go off of one basic platform, and just tweak it a little to customize it for each section. That's had me exceedingly busy, and I've been working hard to conjure up all my hidden and locked repositories of Microsoft Access knowledge. With any luck, we should be done soon, then we're off to install it in the many places it's needed. It's gonna be fun!
On another note, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I've certainly got to say that last year's was much better than this year's, but this year's was nice because it means we're almost finished. I didn't do too much for turkey day, but the Army and the nice third-country nationals that help take care of us made quite a to-do over the day. The dining facility was decked out, inasmuch as a dining facility could be, I guess. The best part was all the TCN's hollering out "Happy Thanksgiving!" when, most likely, none of them knew what Thanksgiving was. Check out Dan's blog for some good pics of the DFAC.
Well, thanks to my schedule, I was unable to get a proper Thanksgiving dinner, so I had to settle for a Thanksgiving lunch. It was good nonetheless, for Iraq and all. I avoided the crowds in the dining hall and got my food to-go, took it back to my room and listened to "Alice's Restaurant" while eating. Then, gastronomically and aurally satisfied, I went to sleep.
Well, I also got to meet another General. General Elmo, of the 65th RRC (Puerto Rico) was in theater for a few days. I'm not sure why he came to see us, but I think it had something to do with the fact that we're reservists. We all chatted and had a good time, and he likes to take lots of pictures. I'm still waiting on some good ones to come back, and when I get them, I'll be sure to post them.
In other news, Autumn is now in full swing here in central Iraq. The nighttime lows are dipping into the low forties to high thirties, and daytime highs are now in the sixties or so. The weather is actually quite nice, except for the flies. All of the giant, pesky, kamikaze flies have come back out, and they are everywhere. The other downside is the trees, what few we actually have, don't change color. It's far too dry for that, so they just turn brown and drop the leaves. That just started happening last week, so if I begin collecting all the fallen leaves from every tree I see, I may have a big enough leaf pile to jump into by the time we leave in late January.
Well, I guess the next time we talk will be in December! We'll all be thinking of Christmas and, of course, my birthday! If you want to send me anything, remember to get it in the mail no later than the tenth or so. Mail is going to be extra bogged down on account of Christmas, and our mail cut-off is the twenty-second. Don't forget!