Almost forgot what I got on to say. I didn't post while my son was eating sand in a country that never evolves. I guess my head was elsewhere. He's back now, bigger than life, in one piece. He got off the plane in San Diego not knowing I'd be there. He traveled with six others, all in their cammies, as required, and everyone in the airport clapped and cried. His buddy got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend at the luggage rack. He's stationed in So Cal but comes home about one weekend a month, spends most of the time working in my yard or cleaning my house. The military has made him a neat freak. He hoisted a flag off the eaves of my front porch, the American and the Navy flags. He came back older and wiser and fitter, a big wall of muscle. He says Dorothy had it right when she said there's no place like home. Here's to ruby slippers for all our troops. May your Auntie Em be waiting for you with an apple pie when you finally make it home.