So probably right now, but if not then real damn soon, my cousin, the one in Afghanistan, is getting on a plane. He lands in North Carolina in about 26 hours. He has spend more than 12 months in Afghanistan, and counting the time that his National Guard inactive squad was activated and in training, he's been serving his country almost 16 months. His committment to the military isn't over for another 5 months, so we are all obviously hoping that they don't activate his squad before that the end of December.

I guess that we can't see him for about another three weeks once he gets back (detox training - "it's not ok to shoot at people here") but I really don't give a damn. Just the fact that he is safe in this country, here, is really all that matters to our family right now.