Day the 10th at Fort McCoy

[aadler]

 

My daughter called me last night, and we talked for around half an hour. Just about all of it concerned her engagement. Her mother and I are both worried that her current plan has her moving too fast: not that she may be rushing into a mistake, but that rushing is the mistake. Susan and I went through years of unhappiness, anger, mounting resentment, and ultimately divorce, all of which we could have avoided if we’d taken an extra six months to learn more about each other and get a better idea of exactly what it was to which we were committing ourselves. Roni tends to put up a wall of resistance when our advice conflicts with what she wants to do, but I think she may pay some attention to me on this, just because we’ve been saying the same things (about our past choices) for years.

Tomorrow is my second weigh-in, and it comes relatively early in the morning, so I’ll be able to get a normal lunch. I’ll continue to eat light — I didn’t starve myself for most of ten days just to gain all that weight right back — but I won’t be skipping any more meals. Just the thought is a giant boost to my spirits. It hasn’t been that hard, but the end will be welcome.

Yesterday I called the travel agency to get an updated version of my itinerary, since I had to turn it in to Admin here. I learned that, the day before, the training NCO at my unit had changed all our departure dates to 10:45 AM on the 25th … including mine, which I had already changed to an evening flight. At first I was furious, because I thought the revised departure was too early to allow us to finish out our schedule here. Apparently that won’t be a problem, though, so it just means I’ll get home a lot earlier.

The PX sells small bottles — one to two ounces — of select liquors. Once I’m off my diet, I may get a few coconut rums, or White Russians, just for relaxing and celebration.

Five more days of duty. There’s time for another surprise or two, but it appears that we’re cruising toward the end now.