Reintegration

I've been home for just over a week now.  Things I have learned.

The kids now are not the kids I left.  I intellectually knew this before, now it is a concrete reality.  My wife has done an amazing job being a single parent and I'm very happy to come home to a healthy family that did just fine without me.

Prices for milsurp rifles at any of the gun stores outside Louisville are marked up over what I consider "reasonable" based on the going prices in the Shotgun News and gunbroker.com.  Anyone know where I can get a k98 with good headspace, bore, and crown for around 200 bucks?

If you want Alliant Power Pro 2000-MR powder you will not find it any closer than 1.5 hours in any direction.  Couldn't find any TAC either.  On the flip side I found a brick of 1,000 CCI 400 small rifle primers that I didn't remember buying, so it is kinda like getting a late Christmas present.

The idea of a "quiet Saturday morning breakfast" is not going to happen any time soon.  I woke up before the wife and kids, went downstairs and made hashbrowns and eggs (when you haven't cooked in 7 months it's a good idea to start out on the basics).  I brought my wife a plate of eggs (over easy, I crack them directly into a hot skillet, pour a little water in to make steam and then cover the skillet so that everything cooks up nicely without burning the bottoms of the eggs) and hashbrowns and a bottle of ketchup.  My 1 year old didn't wait thirty seconds before doing a head dive right into Mommy's plate and spilling the contents everywhere.  My wife was mortified, I thought it was par for the course (I managed not to laugh, but it was freaking hilarious).

In Iraq I checked my boots for camel spider, in Afghanistan I checked my boots for scorpions.  At home I have to check my boots for forks, blocks, cars, and other assorted toddlers toys.  I am of the opinion that toddler toys are vastly preferrable to scorpions and spiders.

So things are definitely an adjustment from living in a plywood hooch to living with my wife and two rugrats.  But I truly believe that to be a good Soldier you have to be able to deal with transitions.  One day on patrol you deal with an explosion, the next day you deal with losing a buddy, the next you counsel a soldier who had his wife leave.  The hits keep coming, but the key is to roll with the punches and focus on the mission at hand.  Leave Afghanistan behind for a while, don't suppress it, just let it lie until the appropriate time comes to deal with any baggage.  Cause transisioning from "Warrior" to "Daddy" is way too important to mess up with any sort of baggage.