Turns out I was honorably discharged from the reserves on 13 April;
but I didn't learn this until receiving my certificate in the mail at
the end of May. C'est la vie.
I've been playing the stay-at-home role since losing the job. Fordski made it home safely in early June, and he took off work for almost a month. He grew a nice beard during his off time; it is missed. I volunteered with the JROTC camp again this year, and Fordski joined me. We had a really great time with the kids.
We celebrated the anniversary of our nation's independence with his family. We were looking forward to having his nephew with us towards the end of summer, but unfortunately family matters were too complicated to allow it. We look forward to seeing the nephew and Fordski's brother at the end of the month.
We finally planted a garden and it is thriving. We only suffered the loss of the lavender and thyme plants, which did not survive the transplant process. We also had problems with the bell pepper and jalapeno plants; our resident raccoon ate the buds right off once or twice. We finally have some buds growing back. We have a few pumpkins getting big and changing color, and a couple of gorgeous watermelon plants. The tomatoes are abundant and growing quickly. The serrano plant continues to provide plenty of peppers. The oregano was almost lost with the lavender and thyme, but it finally bouncing back nicely. The rosemary, parsley, basil, and sage and thriving; the garlic cloves I planted have yet to make an appearance. There's lettuce growing well in the bed, and more growing in some pots. I also have carrots growing well in a pot; the green onions continue to prove stubborn. We're planning on a couple more beds for autumn/winter produce.
We got a puppy last month. He's some kind of German Shepherd pitt bull lab mix with brindle coloring. He's a big puppy. We named him Thor. Here's a picture!
I am sorry to share that we lost one of our JROTC cadets from 2012. Dylan 'Dora the Explorer' Range took his own life on Saturday, the 17th of August. Fordski attended the funeral with me in his service blues; I debated a uniform, but ultimately settled on the traditional black. I wore a ring with a large green stone, Dora's favorite color, and my class ring, which bears the JROTC symbol on one side. The captain was there as well in her service blues. She introduced me to Dora's father, saying, "THIS is DC," to which he replied, "YOU'RE DC!" O, the feels. He told us how much we, his cadres, had meant to Dora. They had collages of photos of him with friends and family, and two of the pictures I had shared on Facebook after his death made it on there, including one of the two of us. His JROTC instructor, who is the commandant of the summer camp, even called me out in his eulogy, letting everyone know about a video I had shared that featured Dora crying, of all things. I still can't really believe that he's gone. He was the the joy of Charlie Flight that summer. Always smiling, always laughing, always cheering everyone up. I wish he could have sought help for his problems. But now he is no pain. Fly High, dear Dora.
I recently landed a part-time gig in the city. It's weekend nights, but it's money. Yesterday I interviewed for a full-time gig in the city, and I'm waiting to hear back for a technical interview for a gig on base. Fingers crossed.
We've been having fun all summer with our friends Luna Crow and Reaper and their daughter Cami; from zoo adventures, to dinner at the house, to bonfires in their neck of the wood.
And that's been our summer. O yeah. I turned 28 last Tuesday. Yay.
