The long road home

Well. Today is 2 April, 2008. Probably within a week, we will be done with guard duty. Several NCO's from the New York National Guard unit that is replacing us have already arrived, and when their troops show up, they will take over guard duty from us.

We will, probably for another week or so, run missions with their troops, kind of left-seat/right-seat to give them the benefit of our experience. However, the New York guys have already spent a tour in Iraq, so it remains to be seen how adaptable they will be to learning from OUR experience.

I've carved another sword, this time a samurai sword out of a 2x4 for Sgt. Stafford. In exchange, she provided me with a woven bracelet for my wife. Heres a picture of my latest collection (two of which are missing now):



Jamal (whom I've added to my Yahoo Messenger) has me attempting to understand the ins and outs of a Cisco 2600 router. This is going swimmingly, since it's kind of cumbersome to work on, and not nearly as much fun as some of the other things I can do with my time.

I also have several resumes out there, looking for bites. I have a phone interview with one company next week, as soon as we can finalize a date. I'm also still proceeding apace on the Direct Commission process.

Finally, I've been reading the book of Romans again, and I'm starting to understand a side of Paul that I don't think anyone else talks about. It's quite fascinating to see how human he is, and to recognize why he's thinking the thoughts he is.

My wife is counting the days until my birthday, figuring I will be home by then. I think that's a safe bet. It's less than 880 hours now.

Oh, and finally, unless something happens in the next 7 days, there will probably be No CIB for me. :(

EDIT: wow, looking back over my last two posts I sound really ungrateful and snobbish about the books Aunt Diotima sent me. That's not at all the impression I was trying to convey. I guess I shouldn't blog when I'm tired.

In every (well almost every) one of the books Aunt Diotima sent me, there was some aspect of the book that I really enjoyed. And I read all of them, even the ones that annoyed me, and was grateful to have them for diversion. I tend to be very sarcastic in person, and also very picky (as my family can tell you) with regard to everything that I consume. Reading material is no different, and I complain vociferously about any aspect of what I read that I do not fully enjoy.

Anyway, I would just like to thank Aunt Diotima personally for the books she sent, and hope that she is not offended that I didn't praise them all uncritically.