Orders modified

Apr 17, 2013

So today I decided to get some errands done... Loaded up the old trampoline frame to recycle and got just over $8, wow. Then went and picked up my sister's contact lens from the eye doctor. Went over to Lowe's and returned a hammock because we didn't like the design of it. Took the SUV to get a car wash. Picked up some strawberries from the local stand we like. Drove the SUV to the collision center place where I had it fixed last to look over a couple of lights that were out. Went home and ate some leftovers for lunch. Pretty solid day so far, got a lot done before I had to drive to LA in the evening so I would be there for drill the next morning. Anyways after about 4pm I decided to try and access my Navy email which I couldn't the day before or even earlier in the day. Finally got in and going through what I had and saw one that notified me that my mobilization orders had been modified. I got to the site that I can access to see my orders and I start reading what the change was... it was big change... the amount of days I was to be in Africa changed from 140 days to 330. It took me a bit and had to re-read it to make sure I had it right... yup... another shocker. I told my wife to come into the office to show her, I knew this was going to upset her. She came in and I just told her to read my computer screen... all she could do was wonder why and what changed to make this change. All I could do was speculate some answers, but it didn't really matter, the fact was that I was now going to be away from my family for a whole year instead of a few months. I was going to miss birthdays and holidays, I was going to miss a lot of milestones that Maverick and Ivy were going to make. Being an optimist I thought about some of the good that could come of this instead of dwelling about the bad aspects. More money for the family and we could be pretty much out of debt except of course the house payments. But it was still a shocker, I think I knew in the back of my mind that the original 140 days really didn't make sense. The rest of the day went as planned, had dinner, packed my things and left for LA for the 4 day drill I had... the last drill I would do before being mobilized.