Apr 29 2008
The Missing Piece
Our two weeks together did fly by and the days were filled with all things ordinary. Ordinary days, but because Dale was with us, I loved each one. Dale had no honey do list, but managed to fix things anyway. He easily corrected my home improvement mistakes and reattached various towel bars that Zeke had pulled off the wall. He then decided to go into battle against the tent caterpillars occupying the weeping cherry out front. Dale fell back on the old Manry solution of attacking a large swarm of creatures by hitting the nest with a big stick. When the caterpillars started dropping out of the tree onto his shirt and hair, I decided it was best to leave that job to him. We took a bush walk that greatly needed a Kirk accompaniment, since there were rocks to fall off of and water to fall into. Later, we all chose fish for the backyard pond. Dale who was most concerned with water quality bought 3 algae eaters and named them Tuck, Roll, and Golem. He also bought water plants. He spent quite a bit of time fixing his pond. Josiah chose a bright orange goldfish, the bravest of the lot and named him Napoleon. Abby chose a white and black little fish and named her Jewels. She’s sparkles just like you, Juliet. Gabe chose a hard to find orange and black fish and named him Dynamite. Zeke chose a beautiful orange and black fantail and named her Cleopatra. I decided to join the party a few days later and added Mohawk who has an orange stripe and Pirate who has a black eye patch. Hopefully, we’ll remember to feed the fish. Dale will get upset if he returns to find his pond redo neglected. A loud frog seems to have joined the fish. We hear him at night croaking out “my pond…my pond…my pond”. Last year, Gabe transported tadpoles from the pond to the creek down the road when he and Dale cleaned the pond. Maybe one came back to tell us off. Along with watching the fish, we watched the birds. When I first saw the bright blue bird on my feeder, I thought that the bluebird of happiness had come to pay a visit. After consulting my bird book I believe it is an Indigo Bunting instead. Sometimes what brings me happiness isn’t exactly what I planned would bring me happiness. The last thing we worked on together was the puzzle I had started in January. We finally finished it and discovered that a piece was missing. It looks good, but there is a piece missing. That’s how I feel when Dale is away. I am pretty good, but a piece of me is missing. These last two weeks, I had no missing piece and I enjoyed them very much.
My name is Jim and am in LTC Manry’s command in Iraq. I enjoyed your writing immensely, thank you for sharing. Being able to see LTC Manry from a different perspective gives me assurance that he can be normal too – not just a soldier. I too have combat experience with tent caterpillars, but it was long ago. If I recall – I eventually chopped the tree down. Some called it defeat, I looked at it as victory – I got rid of the caterpillars.
When I was growing up we had a swimming hole near our house. It actually was a little stream, which we, the boys in the neighborhood, built a beaver dam and created a pond during the summer. In the pond there were tadpoles . . . big ones and little ones, hundreds. With my mentality of “the bigger the better” I proceeded to catch the biggest ones. I placed them in a jar and kept them in my room . . . not realizing the bigger the tadpole, the closer they are in becoming frogs – hay, I was just a dumb kid. A few days later I recall Mom had a fright, left the house and I spent the rest of the day catching frogs in the house. The jar was uncovered.
We too spent many hours with the 5000 piece puzzles. My wife did the perimeter and I had to fill in the middle . . . I tried to tell her that it was not fair. What’s fair and not fair in doing a puzzle? We are now into Sudoku – she starts them and when she gets stuck, she hands it to me to finish. I think we will go back to doing puzzles.
We are all blessed in having LTC Manry here with us. I guess I don’t have to tell you.
Thank you again,
Jim
(((((((((Mugs……Dale)))))))))
I love you both…i love hearing the adventures and the happiness you share as a family.
Just keep the faith strong Dale
You are almost done with this part and Mugs…your missing piece will once again be by your side for good.
Dwayne’s family is big into puzzles….i guess i get too frustrated with them…so, i don’t even go there, lol
keep the fishies alive….:)
Sis
I am so glad you had a good time, Mugs. What a blessing. The pictures are gorgeous. I kept wishing the two weeks would slow down for your sake and they just kept flying by!!! Hopefully the remainder of the deployment will fly by as well.
It looks like the missing piece will be stuck in Kuwait for a couple of days. The flight from Dulles to Kuwait was uneventful. But it appears that the sandstorms continue to wreck havoc on the flights in Iraq right now. It was 101 F (about 38 C) when we arrived in Kuwait at 1730 today.
Jim is a Vietnam vet. Now as a USACE DA Civilian, he runs the office in Dahuk.
I liked the part of the story about the tadpoles that Gabe put in the creek and that maybe one of them came back to visit the fish. I can’t wait to come to see your pond!
Sam