Further developments

[aadler]

 
Life continues.

One of the women in my barracks caught a couple of small (very small) sharks while fishing over the weekend, and was advised to marinate them in buttermilk to make the flavor milder once it comes time to grill them. I used electric clippers to renew my haircut (my daughter gave me a close trim during her visit, so all I have to do is maintain it). My daughter herself has returned to her drama ministry, and has a year of duty remaining before she’ll need to decide what to do next in her life.

I’ve gone back on the Atkins diet and resumed my daily running regimen, as I begin preparations for whatever my future will bring. I registered for the Marine fence-line run — five miles — to take place this coming Saturday. I resumed Farsi study. And it is my specific intent to (finally) begin revising the draft of sroni’s “Queen’s Gambit”, long overdue but now next on my schedule. In fact, I plan to start this very evening. Give me all the mental encouragement you can; I’ve owed her that one for a solid year now.

Though I’ll probably go on and volunteer for my unit’s upcoming Iraq deployment (the second for them, and for me), I continue to consider other possible choices. One concern that springs to mind is purely political. That deployment would take place in an election year; through pure blind chance I contrived to avoid ever having to acknowledge the first Clinton as my commander-in-chief, and I’d hate to find myself saddled with Version Two while actually in a combat theater. It’s difficult for me to seriously consider that the American electorate might make such a ridiculous, appalling choice … but they did it once, and then willfully repeated the mistake even after they knew how loathsome was his character. So, no, my confidence isn’t what I might wish for.

If it happens, I’ll be stuck regardless; with at least three years left in my enlistment, I won’t be able to escape. All the same, I hesitate.

Maybe I could extend my tour here at Guantanamo. That might be an acceptable alternative; give me some breathing space, at least.

I feel good about now. It’s the future that worries me.