One Last Beastly Phone Call

Saturday was the day we got our highly anticipated last phone call from Beast Barracks after three days on high alert ~ Three days of non-stop phonesitting. Three days carrying the phone in my pocket. Three days not doing anything I could not drop to answer the phone. Three days of sleeping with my phone ~ well, not the sleeping part... But yes to the rest of it. Three full days of waiting and anticipation, but in our new world of empty-nestedness stretching out as far as the eye can see or imagine...what's three days?

Today, the cadoodles are being flown out on helicopters to the last week of Beast Barracks. They have already packed up their old rooms; everything not going with them has been taken to the trunk room to await their return at the conclusion of cadet basic training.

Next week they will march back to post and move into their new rooms to begin the academic year and their new lives as "cadets," "new cadets" no longer.

The end is near. And the beginning.