Which number do you like better; 39 or 130? Well I am definatley looking forward to 39 which is how long until I get to go on leave. I get a full 15 days to spend at home, plus whatever time it takes for travel. Looking at about 20 days total. However I would definatly say that 130 would be my magic number and that is the "Estimated" amount of days I have until I get to go home. Sorry I cannot say, and sadly I dont really even know when that magic day is. However, we have been told that unless some significant event occurrs we should be home for Christmas.
So . . . 15 days til I get to go home. Time starts the midnight following our aircraft touching U.S. soil and ends the midnight prior to my return flight. I can only hope that I land at 1:00 AM and fly out at 11:00 Pm giving me just short of 17 days home. I have mixed feelings about how I want to spend time when I get home. After pulling 7 months here of 6-7 days a week and 12-14 hour days I really just want to go home, relax, keep visitors and travelling to a minimum. Another part of me wants to have some extravagant vacation. I was originally planning on taking my wife to her dream vacation in Gulf Shores Alabama. Im not quite sure why its her dream vacation, you would think it would be more like a tropical beach on a remote island in the Carrabean but thats what she wants. Anyway I was looking at vacation packages and ideas for the trip but with my leave time being variable, I did not want to make any reservations and risk loosing them and the down payment because my flight was delayed in Iraq.
My main concern with leave is all the people that want you to come visit. When I came home for leave on my last tour I had all kinds of friends and family calling and emailing asking em to come visit them, some several states away. They all wanted to see me but it was expected of me to go around to all these different places just to visit them leaving me no time to relax. Needless to say there were some angry people when I refused to travel. But we can do all that once I am back home for good. My plans right now consist of coming home and relaxing for a few days. I do want to travel back to my hometown to see my family. I plan to take one maybe two days for that. I am also talking with my dad and brother-in-law about trying to join the Masons. (I figure with all the other changes for the good in my life, (becoming a Realtor, getting married, getting ready to start a family)this may be one of the best.)) I also think I will take my wife to the beach, she is really looking forward to that Then back to relaxing before returning to this place for two-three more months.
So another 130 or so days until I get to come home. That is the true number I cam counting down towards. Home by Christmas, and hopefully never gone again. I have decided that it is time to get out of the Army. I plan to put full emphisis on my Real Estate career and do not want the distraction of going to weekend duty, or leaving for several weeks at a time to get in the way of my potential as a Realtor. I still have until August 2011 until my contract is up but they should not be able to deploy me again beofre my contract ends. I have had second thoughts about getting out but my wife is so excited that I made the decision to end my career that even the mention of staying in those last eight years seems to break her heart. Of course in her defense. The Army did take me away from her a mere three months after our marriage. This deployment is hard enough on her and I can't imagine doing this once we have a family.
So here I am, the end of July, just counting down the days. Actually its almost the end of the work day so I will go ahead and change it to 38 and 129(ish). It sounds a little better anyway.
Nicholas S. Bush
Realtor®
Total Auction and Realty
IJango Representative
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