I am back in the District for the last time. The next time that I go home, I will go home permanently. It is a wonderful feeling.
It has been a rough few weeks, being separated from my wife and children. We have endured long absences before, but this is the first time that they were in a new place.
I spoke with a Marine who is with my unit, but temporarily stationed somewhere else. His temporary duty is to process the remains of fallen Marines (United States Marine Corps) for their last trip home.
I am feeling rather patriotic right now.
This arrangement John Williams’ Liberty Fanfare by the USAF Heritage of America Band pretty much says it all.
My unit has left without me. I must say that this is what I had requested due to my intentions to separate from the Marine Corps two weeks after they return, but I still feel a sense of loss. I like to feel productive, and I am proud to be part of this brotherhood. I take respite in the fact that I will still be contributing to the overall success of my unit even though I am not physically with them.
I understand the point of having a Duty NCO. For those of you unaccustomed to military terminology, one of the main purposes of a Duty NCO is to be there in case of an emergency, never leaving apost unmanned. But that does not stop the boredom, especially when everyone else had the day off. To set the record straight, I am not complaining, I am just bored.
I sit at a desk, answer the phone, run miscellaneous errands, and play bugle calls throughout the day at The Oldest Post of the Corps. That is when people are here. When people are not here, I answer maybe five calls in a day, and sounds bugle calls. Completing these tasks takes up maybe an hour and a half of the day.
I am just finishing up some adjustments to the web site at work. I am very limited in what I can do, but I think that what I have done is fairly aesthetically pleasing.
The code is an interesting mix of CSS(link) (Cascading Style Sheets) and HTML(link).