Away From Home Sucks

If you have been tracking here for a while you know that I work 120 miles away from my home - I have a two hour commute, and that is one way. What sucks more than high gas prices, more than the driving, is being away from home - my wife and the "comfort" that sitting on the couch feels like.

This has been recently brought home again since we have adopted this new dog - Lily. Jen loves animals and loves Lily. Lily is the kind of dog that is easy - she has never had obedience training and learned to heel in about 10 minutes. In fact she naturally walks next to you. Jen needed that. Cinnamon, our other dog, enjoys pulling your arm out of the socket. She has had obedience training and still needs a prong collar when Jen walks her since she is so STRONG.

Last night Jen had to go out. Lily had to go in the crate since she is "dig dog" and Jen would be gone for hours - Lily has probably never been in a crate before. Jen got home and Lily was SO GLAD to get out of her crate. That caused Cinnamon to manifest demons again since Lily wanted attention and Jen just isn't forceful enough to MAKE Cinnamon not be devil dog.

I wanted to be there. I am what you might call a "natural" with dogs. It comes easy to me. I can't explain why, it just does. So when things don't go well, like last night, Jen calls and just needs to know what to do, needs some reassurance. She is not a "natural" with the dogs. So sometimes she feels like no matter what she does, it's just not the right thing. I hate that. Being home each night, even closer to home during the day, would make a difference.

Closer to home would mean that I could be home EVERY night. It also means that I could get home faster if need be. You want to talk about suck? I get a call that my wife has kidney stones, at 2 am, and I am 2 LONG HOURS away just to get there. Thank God Suz was there to help.

All that to say that I respect people who travel and work away from home week after week, night after night. I am finding that, instead of getting easier, it is more difficult. There are other reasons but you get the point. It's getting long, and OLD. There has to be an answer. I just don't know what it is.

To those of you who are readers here, and talk to God, I have a favor - would you talk to God about this for Jen and I? Thanks. I won't even ask you what to say, just say it.

I'll let you know how it is going.

WH