DOG DAYS OF SUMMER

A hammock, a cool drink, a slight breeze, trees and the surf lulling you to sleep.  Sounds like an okay deal doesn't it?  Add the fragrance of jasmine and pineapple and coconut and I am there!  I could put chocolate into my fantasy, but it would most likely melt.

What is your Dog Days of Summer fantasy? 

I just finished writing my daily email to my 'chosen' sister who is deployed in Basra, Iraq.  There was nothing I could think of sharing with her that will change her situation.  Her last email to me was full of sadness and loneliness and space and time. 

I wanted to complain about the heat here today and how exhausting it is and how just walking to the mail box frazzled me.  I wanted to tell her I was having sushi for dinner.  But I ended up telling her how much I love her and admire her and am encouraged by her photograph on my desk. It will remain there until she comes home in April. 

But I couldn't.  You see it is 138 degrees in Iraq today.  And sushi is a few thousand miles away from her.  Whatever my issues, problems, dilemmas, concerns or complaints might be, they are nothing compared to hers.  She faces mortaring each week and is rushed to a concrete bunker.  I get in my Lexus and drive in airconditioning to a grocery store and complain about the masses of people competing for huge amounts of fresh produce and delicacies and pastries and wine and imported cheeses and more. 

My Dog Days of Summer fantasy is to have my sister back home.  Back home with her husband and dogs and going out to lunch with me and talking 'girl talk,' and not IED's and weapons and bunkers and dust and heat in a land far, far away.

You see she loves America this much.  She loves her troops this much.  This much to sacrifice a year of her life in a country at war. 

Do you?  What do you sacrifice for our freedom? 

Tomorrow I will spend three to four hours with our wounded warriors, Army, Marines, and Air Force.  All who loved this country this much.  They don't complain about the Dog Days of Summer.  They don't complain!  Never.  Not once.  They love this country that much.  I love them that much.

God Bless our Troops wherever they are.

God Bless my sister. Next summer we will find a hammock and a beach and have some girl talk!