Yes, tonight “technically” I got my truck back.  Scotty is back in California for 36 days for combat training before heading to North Carolina for school.  It has been a great visit with him, and yes, although I have owned my truck for the entire time he has been here he has been the one driving it.  I have only driven it a few times total, since we got it the day before we flew to California to pick Scotty up.  In all honesty, I really would feel better about just getting to complain that I cannot drive it myself if that meant he stayed.  But it is what it is…..Scotty is a Marine and he goes where he is told.  My truck, on the other hand, lives here.

But tonight I post TWO pictures.  The first is Christmas morning here at home, a picture I have been saving.  And the second is tonight in the USO office in Indianapolis of the boys together.

Just as the last month has, today has gone by too quickly.  Scott was on leave for only 10 days but was assigned to the local recruiting office for the last three weeks.  But today, on our last day together, Ben picked our last lunch and we all went to their favorite buffet.  Steph called him from school.  We then got Scotty a haircut and headed to the airport where incidentally, Marines are quite popular.  The military is a family like no other.

But later than you would want to know we heard from Scott.  He called from Phoenix and then he texted from San Diego.  He ended up not sleeping in the USO office but hitched a ride to a hotel with some other Marines he graduated with from NY and will rest up before reporting to Camp Pendleton tomorrow.

So my truck is clean, and it is ready for me, for Ben, and for Viper.  Yes, I have missed her……yet somehow in my heart I know that driving her will just not be as satisfying.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+