Happy Independence Day to all my fellow Americans, and a fantastic weekend to everyone. Plus, obligatory naval humor for this day.

Well, that was an eventful and stressful three months on the carrier. Quarantining. Sleepless nights spent carefully planning courses of action. Executing practice missions. Getting the strike group ready for deployment. Now I’m home for a couple of months before heading overseas for a year. Time to catch up on what’s been happening in the world. Let’s see what’s been going on....

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I waffled on whether or not to post this blog because after I finished it, as I felt like it had served its purpose as the only form of journaling that I’ve enjoyed. Plus, it’s like therapy for me. Then, as I was perusing YouTube, I came across a video.

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Happy Hearth's Warming, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Festivus, Happy Festag, or however you choose to celebrate, venerate, or mark the passage of this final season. Here's to all you, wherever you might be, and to all your memories and endeavors. May they be comforting and triumphant for all of time.

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I have so much I want to say, but my powers of articulation still haven’t caught up to the range of emotions that have been roiling through me since yesterday evening. It’s not really sadness; not anymore. Even with all the feels that yesterday brought out, I think it was more of a sense of hollow resignation. We knew it was coming. I knew it was coming. Do you know that sensation of anticipation that comes the night before a big trip or vacation? It was that except the emotions were reversed.

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Six hours since The End and it’s only now really starting to settle in that this thing which has been a constant in my life for the past 8 years is finally over. And I only realized near the end that the Heartmender HQ server had a bunch of folks in a voice chat watching it all together. I’m going to be kicking myself for while for missing the rare opportunity to try and connect with new people.

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In spite of being at planning conferences and training seminars spanning the entire western U.S. coast and Hawaii, plus underways aboard ships in my squadron for inspections all this and next month: stuff is happening. Despite a long-range schedule that has me in month-long exercises through most of this autumn, all of winter, and into half of next year: things will be happening. Need proof?

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“Taps, taps. Lights out. All hands turn into your bunks. Maintain silence about the decks. Taps.”

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