A Battlefield Tourist

Time To Go

Jan 31 at 10:10am by David Tate

I’m in my final hours before leaving and I’m just kind of in a trance.  Mom has Davin for the night so Heidi and I could have a date night and sleep in.  It was all very nice.

Afghanistan invokes good times in my life and bad times.  The worst is that my prolonged time in Afghanistan, in 2004, broke the back of my marriage and we’ve been struggling ever since, with great hope.   The best memories are too numerous, I enjoy this place.

It sure is wonderful to have such a good wife, though; letting me take off, for the fifth time in six years, to such a crazy environment?  Too bad I’m a recovering asshole with relapse issues.

The coffee’s hot and it’s quiet as I sit here wasting a few more minutes before I have to get motivated.  Just having a smoke as I watch Heidi sleep the morning away.  One last internet poker game… just relax, because when Davin gets here, there’s no such thing. 

I have too much crap packed, I can tell.  It looks like more.  My general rule is that if I can’t carry it, I can’t bring it.  I think I have some work to do.

I’ve let the bills stack up so I can do them at once, giving me and Heidi some comfort knowing there’s nothing pressing.  Just another thing on my list.  Which reminds me:  I still haven’t called any friends, my grandparents, or whoever, to say “goodbye”.  Nor have I written out “the note” and financial instructions in the unfortunate case that I get killed or seriously wounded.

Hell, I haven’t even sent my parents, siblings and their kids the stack of Christmas presents sitting in the closet.  I think I better get moving, my plane leaves in 6 hours.