Time to head down range...

The summer has come and gone...  I can't believe how quickly it passed.  The rumor of deployment is no longer a rumor.  PMT (pre-mobilization training) is over…  Three weeks of training in preparation for our deployment to Afghanistan.  The first reality check was the food at dinner the first night.  Some kind of mystery meat, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn on the cob.  It was quite the departure from the walk to dinner to the myriad of eating establishes in the west end of downtown Austin.  Leaving for a deployment isn't like leaving for a business trip.  You don't just pack up and get on a plane, take off and arrive at your destination a few hours later.  It's a much longer drawn out process in the Army.  I'm currently 35.7 miles away from my condo in downtown Austin at Camp Swift in Bastrop, TX.  It's kinda painful.  In a few weeks I'll be about 80 miles away from home (in San Antonio) then a little over 100 miles after we go to Fort Hood.  Eventually we'll be about 8000 miles away once we get to Afghanistan.  Unreal... This next year is definitely going to be a marathon for maintaining my sanity.  Trying to take things day by day and hope the experience is positive in helping me appreciate the simple things in life.