So let me explain

Here in Sadr City someone had the great idea to build a wall with 20 ft tall cement barriers to create a "bad" area and a "safe" area. We live in the safe area and patrol up to the wall that divides us (the wholesome liberator) from JAM (the evil oppressive insurgents). Somebody else thought it would be a good idea to put barriers EVERYWHERE! We have missions that last eight to ten hours of placing, moving, breaking, shifting, rotating, and counting cement barriers weighing anywhere from 6,000 to 15,000 lbs. We have run into innumerable, seemingly insignificant problems while doing these missions (my count is near 20 missions) that my head will explode if I name them all. To name one, however, is to explain this entire war over here. But first some background.

Texas barriers are roughly seven feet tall, two feet wide, and six feet long. Actually, the barrier looks like an inverted "T," with a two foot base and a eight inch stem. All barriers, however, are not created equal. Our mission was to find and replace all the barriers that were of different heights. This is not a very difficult task, really. We had a two inch tolerance in height differences. We began the process and all was going well until we realized that the barriers, although now all of a uniform height, were different lengths. The new barriers would not fit in the old slots! What could we do? We had to move down the line and find the required inches. Previously, barriers were placed sometimes with no space between them, sometimes with an inch, sometimes two or three inches separated barriers. So the five inch overlap in length caused us to shift five, eight, ten, sometimes more to compress the wall and gain those necessary five inches. But wait, there's more. I guess some of the forms are warped or bent because the several of the barriers we received were bowed in the middle. We had enough room for the base to fit, but halfway into position the barrier would catch on the barriers next to it and be stuck in mid air. So there we were, 0230, moving the barrier up and down and up and down and up and down trying to whittle away at the cement, like a cheese grater or something, to get it to fit in place. "Frustrated" does not begin to explain how we felt.

I have had enough with cement for a long time, possibly my entire life. And the worst part is that every time I think I am done, oops, another barrier mission.