Here Today and Gone Tomorrow

I can't remember the last time the Ancient Mariner and I have spent a three-day holiday weekend together. We had big plans for Memorial Day but a typhoon decided to head our way so his and all the other ships were sent out to sea lest they suffer damage banging against the piers. When the Fourth of July rolled around he was back at sea on a scheduled summer deployment which brought him back to port just in time for Labor Day.  Alas, College Boy and I spent that holiday on an airplane bound for Seattle via Minneapolis.

So although I think Columbus Day is long overdue to be erased from the Federal holiday calendar, this year I was happy to celebrate it and I'm not complaining that he spent one of this three days off his regular job volunteering in the hospital emergency department, wiping the cobwebs off those doctor skills.

We had to set our alarm clock for 4:00 am when we got home from the retirement dinner for the Japanese admirals Saturday night because we had promised to walk in the Relay for Life in nearby Zushi at 5:00 am.  It was dark out when we started walking; the luminarias ringing the track looked so pretty.  When dawn arrived shortly after 5:30 some familiar faces started poking out of the tents set up in the infield and Knitwit Jamie joined us for a lap.  Her husband, a math teacher at the middle school here who is also in the Navy Reserves, left three weeks ago for a nine-month stint in the Middle East as an Individual Augmentee (IA).

Strolling with the Ancient Mariner first thing in the morning was so darn pleasant that I decided we should make this a habit.  This morning we solved most of the world's problems while marching around the base for 38 minutes.  The rest of the world's problems will have to wait until the Ancient Mariner gets back from Singapore.  This conference could not come at a better time.  I'm not sure my legs would survive three straight days of exercise.