What a Great Surprise!

The past few days have been filled with various chores around the house: change car oil, fix a bathroom fan, cleaning gutters, planting, grass cutting, etc. Spring time!

Reflecting back on the past few days. Jason called me two days in a row, which is a bit unusual, asking what we were doing this weekend. I thought that he was homesick and felt bad that what we were doing was pretty selfish in that it had to do with "our" stuff, and he was homesick and asking, indirectly, for a visit.

Back to the present. I was walking through the bedroom to the living room and guess who is standing there? Jason!! He got a ride to Columbia, SC with another Recon Trainee, and then was able to get a ride to Aiken from a friend who goes to school at USC (that's University of South Carolina - not the West Coast USC) and was coming home to Aiken for the weekend.

Jason looks great. His attitude is much better than at Easter when he was having doubts about the choices that he's made - some guys were just filling his head with a bunch of shit. He is learning a great deal in his present training - I can't wait to go backpacking with him again. In the past, I was the one with the experience and he was the "mule," carrying the heavier pack. He will still carry the weight but he is now a thinker, a problem solver, knows the woods, and doesn't know how to say, "no" when facing a difficult challenge. His shoulders are broad and hugging him is like putting your arms around a pine tree and squeezing.

The weekend was a "friend" weekend for him, so he didn't stay long, just long enough to eat some of Jen's left over calzone and talk. We will probably see him again tomorrow before he heads back to Camp LeJeune. The good news is that the guy he rode to Columbia with has a girlfriend (which is why he goes to Columbia), so my gut tells me that he will need Jason to keep him awake in the car as long as he and his girlfriend are together.

Today has been a good day. My boy came back for a visit.

WH