Missing Military

I sold our old fridge today.  This is pretty exciting for me since it has been taking up space in my basement since the Professor bought a new one at a Thanksgiving day sale.  I've listed it several times on craigslist and thought I had buyers all lined up but they failed to show.

Apparently the 5th time is the charm.

There was a moment this morning after I finished making arrangements over the phone and realized that I had just told a stranger my address and exactly when I was leaving for and returning from work when I wondered if it was foolish to be planning to let someone who contacted me via craigslist into the house while I was home alone.

But the thought of actually getting rid of the fridge and for CASH seemed to me to outweigh the minuscule risk of rape and/or dismemberment.

I got home from work and the buyer showed up soon afterwards.  He was a nice looking, clean cut guy who brought a 75 year old father in law with him.  I figured no one brings a father in law along for a rape so I was probably safe.

Image courtesy of taoty / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We got to chatting and I found out he was Air Force.  And not only that he had been stationed in Japan and had flown his Blackhawk up to our neck of the woods many times.  Now he is at the Pentagon which he is just enduring.  I've yet to met a pilot who was happy to be stationed at the Pentagon.

I can not tell you how much this brightened my day.

Loss looms large for me these days and one of those losses that I didn't expect to be so hard is the loss of the military lifestyle.  I miss it way more than I imagined I would.  It was a major part of my life for six years that now is completely and totally gone.

When I see someone in military uniform I practically have to restrain myself from going up to talk to them.  At work today a Major walked by.  If I hadn't been leading a bunch of three year olds in parachute games at the moment I think I would have followed him just to chat.  ("So, where are you stationed?  Where else have you been?  Oh, me too.  Do you know so and so?")  But trust me, you do not turn your back on a dozen 3 year olds with a parachute so I refrained.

Here's some of what I miss

• fast friendships (there's no time to take it slow)
• people who have time to meet for coffee or lunch or girls night out
• knowing your spouses co-workers and running into them while grocery shopping
• running into people you know everywhere you go
• being called Ma'am and having doors held open for me (by men and women)
• interracial couples and that being common and no big deal
• people taking pride in their appearance (and not in a pretentious designer clothes sort of way just in a being fit and neat and well groomed way)
• going out to dinner with visiting VIPs
• being surrounded by people who I know would die for me and for our country
• having one grocery store and one department store and if I can't find it there I wait several weeks or I do without

I'm not saying everyone or everything in the military is perfect or that the above applies to everyone, far from it, but there is a lot to admire and I miss it.

So I'm very happy to think of my fridge going to the nice pilot who not only didn't dismember me but also gave me cash and made my day a little brighter.