Thirty-Nine Years

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Gizmo and Michael get matching hair color
December 12, 2004
I had big plans this day but they all fell through. I'd planned on skydiving but after I made reservations, drove 115 miles to Louisa, Virginia, and waited three hours it turned out their tandem instructor had disappeared. He was last seen being dragged away by a 130 pound lobster. I didn't ask any questions...I just backed away slowly and tripped over a log like a hot girl in a teen horror movie.
So I ended up back where I belonged...with my best friend, Gizmo. It wasn't so bad I guess...by not jumping I saved $309 which I could use to up my bid on that grilled cheese sandwich with the image of the Virgin Mary.
I was two weeks from leaving Virginia for good (YES!!!) and scraping the crap off my shoes and three weeks from retiring from the Air Force after 20 years. In fact, this day was the 20th anniversary of me leaving home in 1984 . 2004 had been boring, empty, pointless, uneventful, pleasant. No gutt-wrenching emotional pain this year. I just wanted to be left alone.